“FLESHLY ADORNMENT OR CHRIST’S ATONEMENT?”
November 22, 2016
Titus 2:1-14 Paul highlights both “fleshly adornment and/or Christ’s atonement”, with, of course, a powerful presentation of what it means to be both Christ-honoring disciples AND pure, sound, well-trained churches touching our world with His saving grace! It says:
“But as for you, speak the things which are proper for SOUND DOCTRINE: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things – that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say to you. Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” [We’ll meditate on these previous verses soon, but I want you to also examine 1 John 3:1-9!].
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now are we children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
It’s also interesting, having read these two powerful texts from Paul and John to see Paul also saying in Galatians 5:1, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” And, if Christ has made you free, why under God’s beautiful blue heavens would you want, even for a moment, to indulge yourself in the “sins of the flesh” when you’ve been made “one in the Spirit with the Son of God, even God Himself”?
It may be because one or someone has bought into the devil’s lie that “you can sin and not die”! The Lord Jesus even had to condemn the “religious Pharisees” when in John 5:39-40 He said of them (and some of us?), “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. BUT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO COME TO ME (the PROMISED MESSIAH, SAVIOR, REDEEMER, AND LORD!) that you may have life.”
Did Paul say, “Stand fast IN THE LIBERTY BY WHICH CHRIST HAS MADE US FREE”? It’s Christ alone, in His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope, that sets the captives free to be vessels in and through which the Life of Christ continues to be Himself, in us, as we take daily the sentence of death to our old selves that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in our mortal flesh! Oswald Chambers put it like this in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,”, (p.92), “There is only one liberty, the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.” Chambers said on the same page, “These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for “HIS” enterprises, “His” building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put (or what he/she thinks he/she shall do!).”
John the Baptist made a bold, profound, convicting statement when in John 3:30 he said: “He, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord, the coming King of kings and Lord of lords, MUST INCREASE, but I must decrease,” and some “professors of faith” resent that because they believe they are more than able to live out their faith apart from His presence in them! How phony is that since “Christ in you IS the hope of glory”?!
But “fleshly adornment” is also seen vividly in “religious pretenders” who know nothing about “born again”! God is not up to promoting a man’s sense and pride in his/her natural virtues, the pumping of their ‘flesh-devotion’, or their corrupt confidence in their ‘fleshly abilities’!
It was Eliphaz who told Job in Job 4:6, “Is not your reverence your confidence? And the integrity of your ways your hope?” He went on, in Verse 17, to ask Job, “Can a mortal be more righteous then God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?” And then in Verse 21 he asked, “Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom.” And I’m sure, without a doubt, that that is true of some, but not all of the disciples of Christ!
In “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, one of her writings is entitled “The Soul’s Traveling,” but I only desire to take line quotes from a very long poem. She wrote: “I dwell amid the city. The great humanity which beats its life along the stony streets, like a strong unsunned river, In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, rolling on!…
I dwell amid the city, and hear the flow of souls! I do not hear the several contraries – I do not hear the separate tones that rolls in acts or speech, for pomp or trade, for merrymake or folly – I hear the confluence and sum of each, And that is melancholy! – The voice is a complaint, O crowned city, The blue sky covering you, like God’s great pity! –
And as they touch your soul, they borrow as of its grandeur, of its sorrow, That deathly odour which the clay leaves on its deathlessness always. Always! Always! Must this be? Rapid Soul from city gone, Do you carry inwardly what does make the city’s moan? Must this sigh of your own haunt you with humanity?
O fair, fair Nature! Are we thus impotent and querulous among thy workings glorious, – among thy fulnesses that still leave us vacant and defiled, and wailing like a kissed child, kissed soft against his will?”
And as Elizabeth Barrett Browning was ending this dramatic poetic reality of ‘fallen mankind’, she spoke of ‘human vainness ‘unless they travel upward to God’s Throne!’ And then she wrote ,”There sittest THOU, the satisfying ONE, With blood for sins, and holy perfectings for all requirements – while th’ archangel, raising toward Your face his full ecstatic gazing, Forgets the rush and rapture of his wings!”
But “fleshly adornment” is vain! The ONLY supernatural life, again, is “Christ in you the hope of glory”! Conscious holiness in a fleshly mind is “deception” and truly “grieves” the Holy Spirit! Conscious holiness in a fleshly mind resents and reacts adversely to Jesus Himself even saying, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but you do not do what I say?” “Self-conscious” holiness resents the Cross and celebrates “self-intelligence” and operates on the basis of religious “self-effort”!
But Romans 5:10-11 declares: “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [being] saved by His life.”
As the author of Hebrews closed out his amazing revelation, he said, in Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT, make you complete in every good work TO DO HIS WILL, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
And if we’re redeemed, reconciled, re-born in and through the blood of the Lamb of God, if we’re “pardoned, forgiven, made new through His blood”, if we’re “delivered from the penalty of sin, blessed with a new identity ‘in Christ’”, why or how even does one consistently look inward to himself rather than upward to the God of eternal forgiveness with the old sin nature obliterated and the new divine nature freely given? 1 John 1:7 clearly says, “…and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” Human power, fleshly will, self-pardon never erases sin’s debt before Holy God, only the blood of the Lamb! There is nothing so disadvantageous as a haughty and proud spirit that rebuffs the shed blood of the Lamb of God and wilts before the mercy and grace of God, proud of his/her ‘self-sacrifice’ that is ghostly, godless, governed by the unnatural, and guaranteed by the Word of eternal death and separation from Holy God and the Loving Savior!
It was James Milner who once wrote: “While a man rests on his own merits for acceptance with God, it is of little consequence whether he be a pagan idolater, or a proud, ignorant Pharisee. – I know not which of the two is most distant from the kingdom of God.” [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, p.401]. But by His grace and mercy and love, through repentance toward God and faith alone in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, the true foundation of the born-again believer’s life is not to the ‘athletic principle of ‘best effort’ but to the Person, power, and presence of Christ as the only explanation in you of Divine Life!
And ‘resting on one’s own merits’ for acceptance with God is becoming aware of vacant seat assignments at His banqueting table because invited guests refused to show up! “Fleshly adornment” for a religious ritual on a “fleshly altar” become easily adaptable by many in place of true repentance, true faith, and the true calling for one’s ‘religious accommodations’ and, on their terms, void of the never-fading clear picture of true disciples who DO FORSAKE ALL AND FOLLOW JESUS ONLY!
In Joshua 24:14-15 Joshua spoke then, and he still speaks now! “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served…Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether strange gods…or the gods ‘fallen men’ bow down to around you! But as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”
In some way, or even many ways, Christ Jesus stands at the door of every man or woman’s heart and He knocks, when in Truth, HE IS THE DOOR by which we enter into oneness with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, “the three-in-one”! In John 10:1-5, listen to King Jesus! “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
In Verse 7 Jesus said, “I AM the door of the sheep!” In Verse 9 He said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture…Verse 10b, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Glory! But… if Jesus knocks, do all answer and enter in? Do you understand, witness, or grasp the reality of fleshly obstinacy in some minds and hearts?
And what began in Genesis continued on even to the end of Revelation and all across human history even to this very hour! And “the choice” is always there! In our day, it’s Hollywood movies or the revealed Word of God, messages and basic principles of Godly living or the godless living spouted by godless professors in their curriculums and teachings of godless living, or godless world leaders with the ‘expositions’ of godless men, OR the profound, prophetic teachings of Redeemed men, re-born servants of God and available vessels of ALL the Redeemer desires to reveal, unveil, and do through repentant, faithful hearts!
It’s not “astute minds” that reveals the grace, mercy, and love of God, but “new-born lives” redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, anointed and overflowing with “rivers of living water”, and bathed in the assurance of His words of hope, of heavenly glory, and of the will to live to the honor, glory, and blessing of Christ alone through us! Is Jesus ‘prominent’ in you or is He “preeminent in you”?
In 1 Corinthians 2:4 Paul stated: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” True disciples yielding daily to the anointing of the Holy Spirit that Christ Jesus WILL BE ILLUMINATED THROUGH THEM? What did Jesus say about Himself as He walked out His eternal earthly calling, ministry, and purpose? In John 17:13-19 we are challenged, convicted, and consecrated by the very words of Christ Himself as He sees us, even now, His ambassadors in a needy world, amply equipped by the Spirit of Truth! Jesus said:
“But now I come to You (Father-God), and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word (Have YOU truly received the Word?); and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. SANCTIFY THEM (or “set them apart”) by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. AND FOR THEIR SAKES I SANCTIFY (or willfully set apart!) Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” Do YOU see “yourself” SET APART TO THE GLORY AND HONOR OF GOD?
Hear me! It’s God’s desire for you and me to be His royal, faithful ambassadors of the true faith with vibrant testimonies, verbal declarations, of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God – or even as some believers did in Jesus’ day or our own day, they yield to warped, maligned, shamed images and opened-unveilings of sin’s captives, deceived by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and drift, or fall away, and, yes, shame the Name they profess to be aligned with. God, help us!
It was Thomas Watson who once said: “A true saint is a divine landscape or picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth. He has the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will with Christ.”
In the old “American Hymnal” of 1933, there is a classic hymn written by John Bakewell and Louis von Esch which says: (“Hail, CHRIST Once Despised”):
‘Hail, You once despised Jesus! Hail, You Galilean King! You did suffer to release us; You did free salvation bring. Hail, You agonizing Savior, Bearer of our sin and shame! By Your mercies we find favor; Life is given through Your name.
Paschal Lamb, by God appointed, All our sins on You were laid; By almighty love anointed, You have full atonement made. All Your people are forgiven, Through the virtue of Your blood; Opened is the gate of Heaven; Peace is made between man and God.
Jesus, hail! Enthroned in glory, There forever to abide; All the heavenly hosts adore You, Seated at Your Father’s side; There for sinners You are pleading; there You do our place prepare; Ever for us interceding, Till in glory we appear.
Worship, honor, power, and blessing, You are worthy to receive; Loudest praises, without ceasing, Meet it is for us to give. Help, you bright angelic spirits, Bring your sweetest, noblest lays; Help to sing our Savior’s merits; Help to chant Immanuel’s praise!”
What is YOUR ‘angelic song of the redeemed’ or do you even have one? Hebrews 10:14 declares: “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” As a result of God’s mercy for us in Christ, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:29-30, “…that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him YOU ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who became FOR US wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”! AMEN? That’s “unholy men made holy”, that’s “unrighteous men declared righteous”, that’s “ indicted men forgiven, freed, and filled with the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” that’s “the ‘incomplete’ declared complete in Christ our Lord and Savior”!
Another old hymn in closing this message entitled “Glory to His Name” written by Rev. E.A.Hoffman and Rev. J.H. Stockton out of the same old “The American Hymnal! It says:
“Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His name.
I am so wondrously saved from sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within, There at the cross where He took me in; Glory to His name.
Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin, I am so glad I have entered in; There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean; Glory to His name.
Come to this fountain so rich and so sweet; Cast your poor soul at the Savior’s feet; Plunge in today, and be made complete; Glory to His name.
Glory to His name,…Glory to His name;…There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His name.” Amen? Will YOU bow and sing: “Glory to His name ONLY”?