(Om Orientation) the Pull of the Flesh - Part 2 — George Verwer

The Danger of Neglecting Spiritual Discipline

One's name was Billy Graham. The other's name was Chuck Templeton. Chuck Templeton was a better speaker. He was getting better results. He was seeing greater things happen than Billy. Chuck Templeton today is just a complete reprobate, writing filthy movie scripts and every possible thing.

I know a man who was the head of a leading youth organization last year in a large city. Souls were coming to Christ. Great noise. God's blessing. Today, he's singing crummy songs in a dirty, dingy nightclub in the very same city.

Why? Because discipline is laid aside in the church. The church has so forgotten about discipline that after the average evangelistic meeting, everybody goes out to load up on hamburgers, milkshakes, and what else you might have.

And we know nothing of fasting. Fasting is just absolutely a forgotten thing. You mention the word, and people look with horror at you. I want to tell you, if you don't learn to fast, you'll never learn to conquer kingdoms for the glory of God.

I've never read about a man of God who didn't know something of fasting. Alan Redpath once said at Moody Church, he said, you know why no one fasts anymore in our day? Because no one's really hungry for God.

Fasting isn't so much a denial of something as it is a drawing down to someone. You've heard of a young man who got so in love he couldn't eat? I can remember it happened to me. Mine. Sometimes I had the flutter-jetter in the inside.

You couldn't throw me a steak. I wouldn't have even seen it. And I believe when some of us really fall in love with Jesus Christ, we really get to know God. We're going to hunger for Him, and we're going to be willing to say, well, look, that's fine, but I really don't want that meal today.

I just want to be with Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I have the meat, and you know nothing. Oh, if we learned something of that, we'd learn a little bit of denying our lives. Do you know the stomach is far closer to our hearts than we'd ever dare to admit?

Discipline in Adapting to Missionary Life

Do you know one of the major problems on all mission fields of the world for missionaries is adaptation to the diet? One of our own girls, when she got out to India, had a complete collapse, practically a nervous breakdown, just for fear of the diet she was going to have.

She went white as a sheet and just collapsed several times, was sick for one or two days. But unconsciously, consciously she thought she had the victory, but unconsciously she kept thinking of hot foods, she kept thinking of getting sick, kept thinking of all these things.

Of course, you worry about something good enough, you don't have to eat any hot food to get sick. You'll get sick right there and then. And she got sick. Well, praise God, he gave her a wonderful victory over that particular thing.

And actually, I actually love the food in India. There's nothing like people saying. But oh my, the things they could tell you. The missionaries I've been with only the past week, they fly their food in from Singapore.

They fly their goodies in from New York. You can't possibly live just on Indian diet. And the things that are happening all over the mission field today are so heartbreaking because we have never learned discipline.

And if you don't learn discipline in the coming days, this study program, this two hours a day is nothing. If we can't discipline ourselves to fulfill a simple two-hour-a-day study program, we are indeed in need of going to the cross and asking God to cross out something.

The little discipline you need to try to get up on time doesn't mean you can never sleep in. If you feel sick, if you feel ill, well, then you should sleep in. But then you should communicate. But just the whole attitude of just letting the body sort of run.

And oh, some people are rebellious. They think of the fact you can't get two or three tea breaks in Operation Mobilization. And I'm here to say why in ten years all these things will just be all history.

They'll be all history. The kitchen will be open house. I'm not saying these things because I've heard anything about any trouble here in South Africa. We haven't even talked about it with some of you.

We'll try to talk about more important things. But I'll tell you this, unless you learn discipline in the little things, if you're one of those plain people that must have tea six times a day, well, then you better either learn to get the discipline or I'll tell you, you're through.

Because the man who cannot control the appetites of the flesh, as small as they might be, will not control the things that are big. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with a cup of tea. I enjoy a cup of tea very much.

Anything that will help the body. Food is good. We shouldn't despise. We have some people I know, and they go to extremes. And that is also a great danger. They feel every time they're eating, they're sort of sinning.

God wants you to eat. He wants you to be healthy. He wants you to have a proper diet. Some of the rumors that have gone out around this work are so absolutely nonsense. I can tell you, I visit most of the teams, and most of them are eating pretty well.

And there's very few people that get sick because they eat little. Most of the sickness we get in the ranks of O .M. streams from the neck up. I can tell you that's the truth. And doctors today will tell you that 60 to 70 of all of us is all mainly emotional and mental.

That doesn't mean we judge someone every time they get sick. Because who are you to know which kind of a sickness it is? And there are plenty of good solid physical sicknesses still going around. And we got a lot of them in India.

They don't come through the head. They come in four legs and other ways. And so I really pray that you'll see that you've got to learn this, no matter what the cost. And I know in my own life, if I don't continue to learn more and more discipline, then I'll be shipwrecked.

Israel's Wilderness Failure as a Warning

The Word of God is very clear. It's so, so very blunt. If I want you to just look quickly, I think it's 2 Corinthians chapter 10. These are very stunning words. 2 Corinthians, I think it's 10. 1 Corinthians 10 again.

I've really got my Corinthians mixed up this morning. It talks about Israel in the wilderness. Verse 5. With many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now look, these people had a spiritual experience.

They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They did all eat the same spiritual meat. They did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock, not bottle them, and that rock was Christ.

But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples. See, that's why God put this horrible story. This is a horrible story. The guys that hate the Bible call this pornographic.

They call it pornographic. There's a big difference between pornographic literature and the Bible, because the Bible never condones it. It always condemns it, and that makes the difference. Look at those words.

Neither be indulges is where some of them is written. The people sat down to eat, to drink, and they rose up to play. It's Christianity in 1966. They sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day, three in 20 ,000. You mean those same people that were baptized unto Moses? Those same people that drank of that spiritual rock?

Those same people that had an experience with the promised Christ? Fell in one day, 23 ,000? What was the problem with these people? They never learned in all the wilderness time to say no to the flesh.

They never learned to say no. When they wanted meat, they began to grumble and groan. You know, there's a lot of people in our day, they don't have a clue of how sinful it is to complain, to groan and to groan.

You know, I don't believe in engaging in complaining and grumbling and groaning any more than I believe in engaging in immorality. Because, you know, you'll see that they got struck dead for both things in the Old Testament.

Remember how they wanted meat? And they wanted this and they wanted that? They knew nothing of discipline. They were just carried by the appetites of the flesh. And where did they get them? They never got them into the promised land.

They all died in the wilderness. Cast away! They were God's people, but they were cast away because they never brought their body into subjection. God says these are for our example. Neither let us commit fornication.

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murder ye, as some of them also murdered and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now, all these things happened unto them for example that are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. That speaks to me. It speaks to the strong man. The one who thinks he's pretty disciplined. The one who says, well, boy, I'm glad I don't have any trouble with lust.

The one who says, well, I'm glad that I've got good control over my appetite. I can eat anything at any time. I even know how to fast. Beware! Lest ye fall. And I just praise God for verse 13. It's my only hope.

God's Way of Escape From Temptation

Therefore have no temptation you taken you, but such as is common to men. For God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with a temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it.

Now, some people have read into that the thought that once they become a Christian, temptation comes, they'll always get the victory. No. Once you become a Christian, temptation comes, there's always an escape.

That's what the verse says. There is a way of escape. Doesn't say you're going to be forced to take it. You've still got to choose. It's very clear. It's right there, black and white. He will also make a way to escape.

And every time you're tempted, every time there's some problem, be sure, look around, and you can always look best on a bed position, and you'll find there's a way to escape. There's always a way to escape.

And you know, every time the devil comes looming in on me with some stupid sin or temptation, I always say, well, Lord, you promised in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there's a way of escape. And I ask him to show me, and I take that escape.

To do it, you must say no to the flesh, and yes to the spirit. You know, as I read about the discipline of men in the world, it just batters me. Can't God do it in the church? The men that are going out to Vietnam, the training they're going through back in the States, before they ever get on the ship, getting up at the most early hours, two and three miles, running in the morning, the way they're practicing to learn how to fight, some of them are getting hospitalized before they ever go.

Unbelievable. The new training and teaching in the States now, increases training four times as much as for the Korean War. These men over there and all over the world have learned that for soldiering there must be intensive training.

Operation Mobilization as Spiritual Boot Camp

And that is what time is. If you're already a missionary, you're in the wrong place. We are not a missionary society. We are not accepting missionaries. We're training. This is boot camp. This is where we're hoping that men will learn discipline.

This is where we're hoping that young people will learn to pray, learn to study the word, learn to love others, and learn to carry out the most basic things of the Christian life. If you don't get the basics, how can you build on talent?

When you think of these men training, it's only a miracle of God some of us aren't out in that war. I've got three children, that's keeping me company. Roger's so close to going out there, they might put a hoop on his neck and pull him over at any minute.

And there's some others around here, among the Americans, that could be out there. And I dare to say most of us in our first four weeks at boot camp, we'd be the first ones to break down in bold. Because it would be so tough and so hard compared to what we're used to in the ranks of Operation Mobilization.

I was reading the life of General Westmoreland, the man who leads the troops in Vietnam. And when he had his troops over in Korea after the peace, it said Westmoreland was afraid that peacetime would play havoc with his troops.

So he told his men, imagine telling your men just after the armistice, OK, we've got peace now, we're going to have a little bit of training to keep you guys in shape. We're getting up at five in the morning, and we're going to have a two-mile run.

I'd like to see any one of you get up at five in the morning and do a two-mile run. Probably at the end of the first mile, you'll call the transport department. But that's what they did. They got up at five in the morning, took a two-mile run.

After they had a two-mile run, they looked for a creek, tried to find one with the thinnest ice, broke the ice, and went in for a swim. When they got done with that, they found they had a little breakfast, took their picks and shovels, and dug for eight hours.

And I went out here and laid cement for one day, and that practically knocked me out. And so they did fortifications all day, then they had a little evening meal. After the meal, they'd do two and a half hours of boxings, get their brains in shape, and a few other things.

And then General Westmoreland made the comment that at 10 o 'clock at night, you never had any mischief with his troops. You know, why some of you get a little bit excited at night, and you have to talk so much, and you can't sort of calm down is because you don't get enough physical work.

And I think maybe next year, you know, we made calisthenics voluntary at the conference this year. Of course, you know, we're always scared we might bring someone under the law. That's what people are always saying to you.

Well, you're going to bring us under the law, you're going to bring us under the law. That is the biggest lie. Discipline doesn't bring a man under the law, it brings him into liberty. But anyway, I don't think we'll require calisthenics this year, but it might be good to make everyone pass a physical fitness test.

Wouldn't that be interesting? Then all those who pass, they would be free from doing the calisthenics. You know, just little tests like 60 push-ups and a few hundred sit-ups and a few other little things.

But anyway, the Spirit hasn't confirmed that yet, but it certainly would be a good thought. But I'll tell you, Paul says you must bring your body into subjection. And we think of a discipline. I just finished reading a story from World War II of men that were in prison camps.

The Hunger for Freedom From Sin

And they had one great desire to get out of the prison camps, just to get out. They dug tunnels 200 feet long with a bare hand. Some of you mechanics, you think you have a hard time? My, oh my, can you imagine digging a tunnel 200 feet long with your bare fists?

They had such a desire to get out, such a desire for freedom. Why, if we had that much desire to see our lives free from sin, and if we had that much desire to see men free from the chains of death. Why, some of these men, when they were digging tunnels, you can hardly imagine.

If you can picture a little tunnel. And here are the men in here. There's one man, and here's the other man. No room above him, no room beneath him. Just squashed together, completely squashed together.

Here, they had to put the sand from here over here. This is closed off. The biggest problem in building these tunnels is they don't know where to put the sand and dirt. So they take the sand off here and put it here.

And then they move up another half a foot. There's nothing, just about half a foot here and half a foot there. They move more sand. They have little tiny straw pipes going up through the ground. It's the only air they get.

For days, they go through. Some of them went 10, 20 feet in this type of tunnel. Most tunnels use an air tube. And they eventually were building underground railways. They tried so many of these projects.

And the Germans were very, very smart. They caught them every time. It's a whole group of Air Force men from Britain and America. They dig these tunnels, and they get out of the tunnel. There was a German.

Okay, go back to prison. And they tried again and again and again, escaping, escaping, escaping. And they got caught every time. They tried everything. These men escaped, and they couldn't get out. And finally, they just determined they were getting out.

400 men in one of the biggest prison camps in Western Germany. And they just gave everything they had. And they dug a tunnel hundreds of feet. They sunk a shaft deep into the ground, hundreds of feet, with the rats, with the mice.

And they dug their way out. 300 men escaped from this unbelievable place out there. Now, who were they working for? And it was said that in those times, English and Americans, who normally couldn't stand one another, they worked together in clockwork.

And there were all kinds of other characters from all over the world, all different odd varieties that had been in prison there. And they worked together in clockwork. Why? They had a common goal. They had such a common goal to get free, such a common goal to get out, that they forgot all their little petty differences, and the fact that some were American, some were English and all.

And they united, and they brought to pass this whole thing. It's unbelievable. You know, there's thousands of stories like that. That's just one little story. There's thousands of stories like that. Stories like the man I told most of you about some time ago that swam across the English Channel and back.

Non-stop. You know, it was a great thing. It used to be a great thing to swim across. Now you've got to swim across, you know, to really get the big status symbol. You've got to go across and back. And on the way back to school, jellyfish came at him, started stinging him and stinging him.

Well, I thought I had a major persecution in Turkey because a couple of fleas got into my bed. And jellyfish stinging him all over the place. And what did he do? He just kept swimming, kept swimming. Made it back to Great Britain.

Discipline, Neatness, and Responsibility

Unbelievable. The men in the world, they're climbing the mountains. The pilots that run these airplanes through the sky are going through such a discipline. Why, it would scare most of us to think about it.

The airline stewardesses that work in these airplanes. Everything, you just look at them, everything is a team. The way they dress, the way they operate, the way they've been through finishing school, repolishing schools.

Every kind of discipline for just that job. And some of us are so sloppy, so untidy, so absolutely undisciplined. Take one glance at our room and you'd wonder whether we knew how to pick up even a pair of socks.

And God is just so concerned about this. He's so concerned that we learn neatness, that we learn discipline, that we learn to be responsible, that we learn to take care of ourselves, that we learn to bring our body into subjection.

It's the only way. You can say, well, that's very hard. Sure, it's hard. But anything in life that ever amounted or ever counted for anything was hard. And I'm convinced that in the future there might be more dropouts on OM.

But when we get through, we might have some body or some group of people that are going to be able to accomplish it. Making it easier will never help us. Will never help us. We think that's the way out if we make it easier.

But it isn't. Because I tell you, days ahead are going to be hard. And we've got to learn now. And don't wait for somebody to enforce it. But do it because you love it. I pray to God you'll not take lightly what I said this morning.

Drawing on God's Strength in Difficult Work

And in your study program, in your evangelism, in your letter writing, in your eating, in your sleeping, in every aspect of your life you will become ruthlessly, not in yourself, not in your flesh, but brought upon the grace of God, realizing that his strength is made perfect in weakness.

And you're not tunneling through with your own fair hands. He's tunneling through out of you. But you must want to go, you must be willing to go, you must be hungry to go, and you must say yes to him as he gives the orders.

And when you're in a job, it's typing, it's working on vehicles, and you feel it's hard, you feel you can't go on, that's the time to go on. That's the time to draw upon the resources of God. That's the time to bring your body into subjection.

I was out just some weeks ago in Ball, we'd been walking about three miles. The sun was sweltering on me, I had the water just running off my face. My shoes had these little sandals and they were just, stones were coming through them.

And I was tired, and the worst part of it all, it's so hard for me when the houses are two, three hundred feet apart. And it seemed that we had to go through a labyrinth to get to each house. And you got to the house and then they'd give you the, we were in a very poor area, they didn't even have two pices to buy a gospel, you know.

So we'd say hello, we'd give a little word of testimony, then we'd walk out and then we'd go another three, four hundred feet, and sometimes much further, we'd find another house. And while we got in the middle of the morning, a dear Indian brother was with me and said, well, he said, don't you think it's very bad.

You know, we've done enough here this morning, it's about eleven o 'clock, it's time to go back. And oh, I say, how the flesh just craves to go back. I thought if I got back there, he'd probably have a nice, something cool for me to drink.

And yet this is what's going to happen every day, so often times, as we go forth from the flanks of the Lord's army. The flesh will want to go back. And it might even be now in this conference, already the flesh maybe wants to go back.

But young person, if you want to stay off the rock pile, if you want to accomplish anything in your life, for Christ and for eternity, you must learn the secret of the Apostle Paul. He brought his body into subjection.

His mind controlled his body. The mind of Christ controlled the body of flesh that is with us and always will be with us. And he lived in victory and he became a soldier and a conqueror for the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray to God, all of us, will by his grace and his resources and the life of Christ in us, which we've heard in other messages, bring our bodies into subjection. Lest, after preaching to others, we become a reprobate.

And if you think the days ahead are going to be too hard and you're not willing to pay the price, please be honest. Drop out now. You can wreck yourself, you can wreck your life by getting prematurely into this kind of warfare.

But don't go into the ranks of this army unless you really are ready to bring your body into subjection as the Spirit of God guides you and gives you the grace.