“MERE MEN MEANDERINGS!”
By J. FARRELL FISHER, June 5-6, 2017
In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Paul challenges us, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal (fleshly or according to the old Adam-nature!). For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and BEHAVING LIKE MERE MEN?”
It was Fenelon who once said: “There is practically nothing that men do not prefer to God. A tiresome detail of business, an occupation utterly pernicious to health, the employment of time in ways one does not dare to mention. Anything rather than God.” A number of lessons I need to deal with in these moments:
1. MERE MEN WALK AND WANDER APART FROM GOD! In 2 Corinthians 5:11 Paul said, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…”. In fact, in Proverbs 1:7 the ‘wise man’ wrote: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” And the ‘persuasion of men’?
A. Though they’ve been ‘lost’ to God, “In Christ” they are found! B. Though they’ve been separated to God, “In Christ” they’re made one with God in and through Him! C. Though they were without Christ mortal only, “In Christ” they become immortal in Him! D. Though they were dominated by an old sin nature, “In Christ” they’ve become partakers of the divine nature!
Genesis 5:24 tells us, “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for GOD TOOK HIM!” In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 and Verses 17-21 we read: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Verses 17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” That, my friends, is a Glory to God Word!
2. MERE MEN THOUGH SUBSTITUTE THEIR BEST FOR GOD’S BEST! In Genesis 2:15-17 we read, Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
I love Jose Desalzo’s comment in his writing, “God’s Frontier” when he wrote: If God is lacking, nothing a man does is of more consequence than the acts of a mouse.” Your best as a ‘mouse’ or God’s best as a “man in Christ”?
In Galatians 2:20 Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Christ Jesus said in John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
3. MERE MEN WALK DIVISIVELY, NOT IN A UNIFYING MANNER! Again 1 Corinthians 3:3, “for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
In Psalm 133 we find a powerful, unifying theme! It says: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of (Mt.) Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; For the Lord commanded the blessing – Life forevermore.”
Do YOU love the ‘brotherhood’? I’ll never forget doing a meeting in southern India in Coimbatore years ago – I had insisted outreach to every church, every pastor or priest, every gathering regardless of denominational affiliation! After four or five days together, I saw men truly “love one another”!
4. MERE MEN WALK IN THE FLESH, NOT IN THE SPIRIT! In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, not thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
I love what the blind Helen Keller said before her death. “Never consent to creep when you feel the impulse to soar!” But again, Paul in Ephesians 5:17-21, said: “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.”
5. MERE MEN WALK WITH FLESHLY AMBITIONS ONLY – NOT TO PLEASE GOD! In 2 Corinthians 5:4-9 we read: “For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God; who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” But not unbelieving men consumed with fleshly ambitions! It was Pierre Duplessis who said: “Surely, if all the world was made for man, then man was made for more than the world.” Do YOU know what that is?
6. MERE MEN WALK WITH AN AFFIRMATION OF THEIR LIVES APART FROM GOD – THE MASTER’S MEN HAVE NO TRUST IN THEMSELVES! In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 Paul wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, Verse 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”
Paul enlarged our understanding in 2 Corinthians 3:5 when he said, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” Proverbs 3:5-8 is so essential in living a victorious, overcoming life. It says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him (Giving God His rightful place as Sovereign Administrator over your life!) and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.”
It was Thomas a Kempis who once wrote: “God never deceives; but a man is deceived whenever he puts too much trust in himself. MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES.” The prophet Hosea gave a call to repentance to the nation Israel, and, yes, to all across our world today: Hosea 10:12-13, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you have trusted in your own way…”
7. MERE MEN WALK WITH BLINDED EYES – GOD’S MEN WALK WITH SPIRITUAL, HEAVENLY VISION! Again, Paul made it so clear by the anointed writing through the Holy Spirit! In 2 Corinthians 4:3-7 he said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Men with blinded eyes? Epictetus, in his writing, “Fragments”, wrote: “Man is a little soul carrying around a corpse.”
8. MERE MEN WALK ON THE BASIS OF THEIR PERSONAL PERFORMANCE – GOD’S MEN WALK ABOUT STANDING ON THE PROMISES! In 2 Corinthians 7:1 we read, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
In Daniel 11:32 the prophet tells us, “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.239), “The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God. We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and they mean nothing to us, then all of a sudden we see what God means, because in some particular we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is opened up. “All the promises of God in Christ are Yes, and in Him Amen.” The “yes” must be born of obedience; when by the obedience of our lives we say “Amen” to a promise, then that promise is ours.”
9. MERE MEN WALK EARTHBOUND – GOD’S MEN LIVE IN THE HEAVENLIES! In Ephesians 2:4-10 we read, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Mere men earthbound or Holy Men of God living in the heavenly kingdom now? Mere men or Messengers of God? Mere men or Mighty Men of valor? Mere men or Ambassadors of Christ? Mere men or sons and daughters of God our Father? Mere men or ministers of reconciliation? Mere men or Witnesses of Saving Grace? Mere men or the Elect, the Chosen of God? Mere men or the Apples of God’s eyes? Mere men or God’s workmanship? Mere men or Partners with God? Mere men or Vessels of honor before Holy God?
Mere men or clay in the hands of the Potter sculpted in His Holy Image? Mere men or partakers of the divine nature? Mere men alone in emptiness or One in Him the fullness of Him who fills all in all?
10. MERE MEN WILL WALK RELIGIOUSLY – BUT NOT RE-BORN! In John 3, If Jesus says, “You must be born again,” does that mean “best effort” or “Amazing Grace”? It was Max Depree who wrote: “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” And that means all of fallen mankind must accept the crucifixion of their “old man” with Christ at Calvary’s Cross, and the “new-birth” resurrection life in Christ!
Mere men or the new born? “In Christ” has profound, life-changing, eternal realities! Her Me! “I’m chosen of God to bear His Name! A royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special person!
I’m the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, born again into the Holy Family of God. “in Christ” we’re sons and daughters of our heavenly family, our lives have been “hidden with Christ in God,” and He’s raised us up to be seated with Christ in Heavenly Places, declared to be ministers of reconciliation, ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ, entrusted with the Gospel and counted worthy to walk with Christ.
Jesus is the Bridegroom – we’re the Bride of Christ, witnesses of His Redeeming Grace, trustees of the mystery of godliness, and God says we’re “priests and kings unto Him”, the very fragrance of Christ, His peace-makers, His disciples, His soldiers of the Cross.
And “in Him” we’re more than conquerors, new creations, living sacrifices, epistles, poems of the grace, mercy, and love of God – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, disciples, “Followers of Christ”, servants of the King, bearing the image of the Heavenly Man, the called, the separated, the anointed, indwelt by the Fullness of God, Messengers, Proclaimers, Heralds of the Gospel,
The Glorious Body of Christ and members of that Holy Body in particular, Vessels through which God reveals His Son, the salt and light, the Symphony God sings about, the music of His heart, and over us He sings the sounds of joy and sweet pleasure!
There’s an old hymn by Charles Wesley and John Zundel published in”The American Hymnal” in 1933 by The Broadman Press in Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “Love divine, all love excelling, Joy of Heaven, to earth come down! Fix in us Your humble dwelling; All Your faithful mercies crown. Jesus, You are all compassion, Pure, unbounded love You are; Visit us with Your salvation; Enter every trembling heart.
Breathe, O breathe Your loving Spirit Into every troubled breast! Let us all in You inherit, Let us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be; End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty.
Come, Almighty to deliver, Let us all Your life receive; Suddenly, return, and never, Nevermore Your temples leave; You we would be always blessing, Serve You as Your hosts above, Pray, and praise You without ceasing, Glory in Your perfect love.
Finish then Your new creation; Pure and spotless let us be; Let us see Your great salvation, Perfectly restored in You; Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before You, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.” AMEN?