Orientation no.11 Pull of the Flesh — George Verwer

Paul's Call to Spiritual Discipline

On this occasion, George Verwer took his reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 9, commencing at verse 19. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, commencing at verse 19. Here now is George Verwer. For though I be freed from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without law as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.

That I might gain them which are or them that are without law. To the weak because I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do for the gospel faith, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain it. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate, that is, self-controlled in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so quite I, not as one that beateth the air. For I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away, disapproved.

These are verses that every young man and young woman needs to meditate on and think about and pray about. In studying missions and in reading some of the latest missionary releases, almost all missionary directors are in agreement that probably the major factor that is crippling so many new-coming missionaries on the field today is that so few people in our age ever learn anything of discipline.

We do not realize, most of us, just from what an undisciplined society most of us have been reared in. And we get into a situation where discipline is required and we find ourselves against a tremendous mountain of impossibility.

The number of missionaries that are cracking up in their first term on the field is staggering, just staggering. And it's so often because they have never learned to bring their body into subjection. Verse 27, Paul speaks, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.

And more and more God has been impressing upon me that if I fail, and those of us who are carrying responsibilities in this work fail to do everything possible to bring you into a disciplined life, we are helping you commit spiritual suicide.

Sometimes we, leaders, we don't like to be too harsh, we don't like to enforce the rules, and we don't like to nag on people to try to maintain the little bit of discipline we do have. And believe me, it really isn't much.

We don't want to get a reputation of being hard. We have a great emphasis on love and meekness and kindness and gentleness. And we push folks like Andrew Murray's humility and the Calvary Road and all these things.

And so we at times, of course, can't quite see where any kind of discipline or enforcement can be applied. If you think we have any kind of discipline, you need to study the Salvation Army. I might remind you that the General William Booth cut his own daughter off, cut his own daughter off completely because she disobeyed one command.

He cut her off from the Salvation Army, the famous Marochal in France, and cut her off as heir and as his own daughter and practically never spoke to her again the rest of his life, even though she went on to lead more souls to Christ in her later years than he did.

And it was basically because lack of discipline. He told his daughter when she left Britain, he said, first, I'm your general, and second, I'm your father. And that's the kind of discipline that many groups have had in years gone by.

And of course, when you see how many tens and hundreds of thousands of souls were swept into the kingdom by the Salvation Army, you perhaps might hesitate to criticize General Booth for what seems to be a rather extreme measure.

Well, we don't have anything near that. We're more lenient than most people would ever imagine. But I have been coming under deep conviction that whether I lose my best friend, I'm going to exhort, I'm going to cry, I'm going to preach, I'm going to do everything I can to get young people to see the need to bring their body into subjection at any cost.

Because it's so clear here that if we don't get this discipline, if we don't learn to bring our bodies into subjection, we're going to be cast away. If the Apostle Paul is going to end up a castaway, well, I don't know what hope that gives for some of us if we don't bring our bodies into subjection.

The Mind, the Will, and the Pull of the Flesh

You see, basically, the Spirit of God works through our mind. It works through our mind and our will. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ. And so as we pray, as we think, as we meditate, God gives us the solution in our mind.

Now, that's usually quite easy, isn't it? The big job then is to get what you know is right in your mind to change the whole course of your body. And many of us have, of course, discovered that our mind goes one way, pulling us toward that which is right, and our body seems to pull us the other way.

If you look in Galatians, just very quickly, you have a very vivid description of this. Book of Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to another, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

You should never be amazed by the pulls of the flesh. Don't be shocked, discouraged, disappointed, and depressed when the most vile, unbelievable, out-of-this-world tugs and pulls come upon your flesh.

I have never met a man yet who was free from temptation, which of course is the pull upon the flesh. God promises us that if we walk in the Spirit, we'll not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Walking in the Spirit is an act of discipline.

Walking in the Spirit is saying yes to the Spirit. Some people have the idea that if they go through a certain amount of spiritual gymnastics, whether it's Bible reading, memorization, prayers, nights of prayer, spiritual crisis, that they go through something, and you've got a hundred different people telling you what it is, that somehow you'll get the victory.

But look, no matter what crisis you have, no matter how many verses you memorize, no matter how much you pray, no matter what kind of spiritual gymnastics you go through, you will never liquidate the need to make a decision.

God is never going to take from you the decision to do right or to do wrong, to walk in the Spirit or walk in the flesh. Now, through the study of the Word of God, through drawing nigh unto Christ, we sharpen up our weapons, we learn to wear our armor, so when the decision hour comes, we have the power and the ability and the grace to say yes, but we still will not be forced to say yes.

God has given us the privilege—some might not think it's a privilege—but God has given us the privilege of constantly choosing, constantly choosing who you will serve. Every king in the Old Testament had the choice.

No matter what they went through, some of them went through revival, some of them had great fathers, some of their fathers were very righteous, but then it says, and he did what was not right in the sight of God and went after the sin of Jeroboam.

And over and over again, we see how these men chose. We see how Solomon chose. We see how David chose. All through the Bible, it is clearly seen that we have the freedom to choose. And this is what life consists of—constantly choosing, constantly choosing.

Yesterday, I walked past a newsstand in the morning, and some planted magazines glared me in the face. That which, before I knew Jesus Christ, and even sometimes after, used to just practically knock me out.

First, I had to choose. Even though I had time in the world, even though I was living top spiritually, I'd been with different ones in prayer—Johnny the night before—I still had to choose, and I can tell you this.

Even though I've been converted 10 years, and God has given victory for 10 years, I still find the choice not so easy. And Paul, obviously, did not find the choice to not serve the flesh very easy when he said, I bring my body into subjection lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away.

Discipline as the Road to Freedom

And my word this morning is, young person, you must develop a disciplined life no matter what. Some people think that a disciplined life brings about the loss of their liberty. No! Disciplined life gives you liberty.

It gives you the freedom to do what you know you should do, and not just what your body craves to do. Discipline is the road to freedom. Bringing your body into subjection is really the way to bring it into liberty.

Because as long as you don't know discipline, as long as you live by instinct—and the majority of people in the world live by instinct. Freud, in all of his psychoanalysis, analyzes truth basically. He does not live by logic.

He does not live by analyzing a situation and doing that which is sensible and right. He lives by instinct, by the drives of the flesh, that Freud gave man up as pretty hopeless. Praise be to God, dear Mr. Freud didn't realize the power of the new birth.

That the new birth can replace instinct drive with spirit guidance. So that we as believers are not led by instincts. We're hungry, so we've got to have food no matter what. Whether it breaks the rule, whether it hurts somebody, whether it offends somebody, this doesn't matter.

We've got to eat, so we eat. We've got to have sex, and so no matter what. We try to repress it, we try to push it back, but we don't really get the victory, and so sooner or later we find ourselves in the mix-up that's probably knocking out 80 to 90 to 95 percent of all young people in the warfare sooner or later.

And you'll never get this victory over sex. There's no sense pushing it under the table. There's no sense hiding it like we did in the days of Queen Victoria. This isn't going to help. We've got to face the reality that the sex drive today, and the fact that man is not controlling it, is literally driving us into the deepest ditch, the same ditch that leads to all sorts of confusion.

I want to tell you there is victory over this instinct, this drive, which seems to be so forceful. Billy Graham, as some of you have heard on the tape, says, don't be so surprised when it's such a strong desire.

It's our creative power. God created. In the beginning, God created man, and he created man in his own image, and that meant he gave man the power to recreate. And so this tremendous power that was released from God when he created the universes, when he created the stars, when he created man, the same power is within us.

It's a tremendous force. It's our creative power. Every time we see a little child, we see the fantastic result of God's creative power to us. And so we shouldn't be surprised, but we should understand the words of Paul.

I think of many people that believe that when Paul wrote these passages, he had very clearly in mind this tremendous battle that he was not free from, that I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.

I was never free from it. I can tell you the story before I was converted. It wouldn't be very pleasant, so I won't do it. But I did nothing. Eating, sleeping, just between eating, sleeping, and buying everything I ever wanted, that's the way I was.

And when I started to see these things in the Bible about this, when I tried to control my Coca-Cola diet, which could almost take down 10 bottles in one night, or my Popsicle craving, which used to liquidate 25 Popsicles on a hot day and blow the end of my pocketbook out, and all kinds of other little ridiculous cravings I had, it was like going over Mount Everest for a little babe like me.

And yet I can say it's only because from the beginning of my Christian life I began to practice discipline. I began to bring my body into subjection by His grace. That's probably the basic reason I'm here today.

I would be washed out. Absolutely. Temptations that have come, and it's only been because over time I've learned to say no to the flesh. And that's what you must develop. That ability to say no to the flesh.

And as you do it in little things, little things concerning food, little things concerning sleep, little things concerning work, then you will develop a habit so when that big crisis comes you'll also say no.

But if you don't develop that no to the flesh and the little cravings that come daily in this way and that way, sometimes even things that aren't really wrong in themselves, then when that big crisis comes and we're all headed for it, we'll not say no.

And people can tell you, men have studied this thing, that if you learn how to say no over certain food, if you learn how to say no concerning sleep, if you learn how to say no concerning work, you'll learn how to say no concerning sleep.

It's a great battle of youth that seems to knock so many out. And one of the greatest testimonies of this work is over the years God has given us such tremendous victory in this area of morals. Not because we are anybody, but because God's Word is true.

And we have had people in the ranks of this work, people I can tell you so many stories, and I'm one of them who have seen the victory and the power of God to deliver from all these kinds of problems.

Fasting, Self-Control, and the Christian Life

I want to tell you there's been times in my life before I was converted, if I started reading a lot of psychology, I would have considered myself just a case, a case for a doctor. Some of the thoughts that have come into my mind before I was a Christian and later after, I mean, if I got reading some of these interesting books, which I steer clear of, some people think I know a lot about psychology.

I've never read one single psychology book. I don't particularly have any desire to do so. I've glanced through a few pages, but I think you can learn a lot more of psychology right from this book and right from just watching it.

God gives us discernment. And with the Word of God and with the teaching, I believe, of men of God like Dr. Adolph and books like that, I've read some of those books, we can learn more and understand more about psychology than we could at four years of university grinding our brains through the devil's meat grinder.

And I want to tell you, I find that a lot of people discover that they're mentally ill by reading about it. And I think if all read enough psychology, we'd all discover that we've got some kind of neurosis or some kind of very serious problem.

The more we thought about it, the more serious it would get. And I've discovered that God wants us to take all of our little strange things and just cast them upon Him and then bring our bodies into subjection, as it says here so very, very clearly.

Look at that verse 26, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. In verse 25, and every man that strives for the mastery is tempered, that's discipline, self-control.

Some people are scared of that word. We have people that are always talking so much in the heavenlies that they're no earthly good. But I want to tell you, God is very practical. And you will not find that you're going to live the Christian life by going through a certain creed and signing your name at the end.

Nor will you find that you'll be able to live a Christian life by going up to a certain altar even if you cry all night. There is no substitute for self-control. The very fact that God used the word self-control means that you're involved.

You, as a free will creature, as an act of the will, must serve the living God. Otherwise, why would Christ say, if you love me, keep my commandments? He should have said, if you love me, read my Bible.

If you love me, memorize my verses. If you love me, do this, do that. No, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And look at John 14 very quickly and another verse, I think it's John 14, 21. This is a very dangerous subject for me because I still lack discipline in keeping my messages short.

But anyway, chapter 14, verse 21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Isn't that tremendous? I believe it's one of the greatest verses in the Bible. Jesus is speaking.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved in my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Isn't that tremendous?

It's your acts of discipline that say, Jesus, I love you. It's not when you get up in the morning and you have your little devotional, yes, Lord, oh, I love you, yes, I really do, and you feel a little tickle in your heart.

No, God isn't interested in that. That's all right, if it's backed up by life. But it's when you don't feel like doing a particular job anymore, you're out on the doors, and you don't feel like going to another house, and you say, because I love you, keep your commandments.

This is the thing that proves to me my wife loves me. This is the thing that wins me. This is the thing that my wife has that batters me, breaks me, and sends me down on my knees. It's because she's submissive.

She does what I ask her to do. Because, you know, if she kept telling me she loved me, but every time I asked her to do the opposite, you know, pretty soon I just wonder whether she really did love me.

And it's the same way with our relationship with God. We keep telling him we love him, we go through our little pantomimes and our little evangelical jargon and go through our little worship wheels, and we don't obey him.

We don't keep his commandments. It's just a joke. If you love me, if you love me, if you really love me, you keep my commandments. You walk in the Spirit. You say yes to the Spirit and no to the flesh.

I've discovered in the Christian life that a vast majority of the things I do I don't particularly like to do. I didn't want to come on this trip. I tell you, it's not easy. Some people think it's only hard for the women when the men go away, but I'll tell you, here's one standing in these old beat-up shoes that finds it very hard to leave his wife and three children.

The day before I left, I had three days with my family from the last month's tour down in Travandrum. So I took my family out sailing. I have a friend who's a pilot at the port, a ship pilot, and he wanted to do something for me, and so we went out in a little sailboat to visit a training ship.

I don't have ships on my mind. Anyway, we visited a training ship out in the Bombay Harbor and took my children sailing. What a wonderful thing it is to be with one's family, and one's wife, and one does love.

And then after one or two days, you just sort of get to know them. They just realize their little daughter's still trying to figure out who's her father. And just as you get together and the Lord seems to be knitting your heart and you have some time of prayer, of course, then you step into an airplane and you go away again for another three weeks.

If you think I enjoy this, you're crazy. I hate it. In my flesh, I'd rather walk through the back jungles of Carol, at least temporarily, and I'll get fed up with that soon too, because you must realize one thing about the flesh, it wants change.

It's always greener on the other side of the fence. And that's why some people go through life just constantly whirling around because the flesh wants change. You do door-to-door work eight hours a day, you'll want to get an administrative job.

You do administrative work eight hours a day, you'll want to do door-to-door work. You preach eight hours a day, you'll want to do some other work because the flesh just so constantly wants change. And if you're going to serve Christ, if you're going to live for Christ, you must learn to do not that which you feel like doing, not that which you like to do, but that which God tells you to do, as you wait on him in prayer, as you allow the life of Christ to take over in your life.

And that's going to mean you're going to have to bring your body in this situation. And if you're not willing to do this, you're heading for the spiritual graveyard. I have seen so many casualties, so many casualties.

Men who have been evangelists, who have led thousands to Christ, who hit the rock bed of statue of lust. I can name three missionary directors, some of you have heard me say it before, but I'll say it again.

It's a warning because God in his word gives us warnings about these things. He says these are written that ye might not do the same thing. But I can give you the names of three missionary directors who rock piled and married their secretaries to divorce their wives.

You say that's unbelievable. Men who fed hundreds of souls to Christ. Men who were respected. Men who preached all over the world. Men who were considered men of God. Rock piled. There were two famous men some 20 years ago.

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 rapper.

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, tolerance, blessing.

Today he's singing crummy songs in a dirty dingy nightclub in the very same city. 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 I don't want to fast anymore in our day because no one's really hungry for God.

I'm not hungry for God. I'm hungry for God. Fasting isn't so much a denial of something as it is a drawing nod to someone. You've heard of the old man who got so in love he couldn't eat. I can remember it happened to me.

Sometimes I was 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 a meal that you know not of.

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. 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 and was sick for one or two days.

But unconsciously, consciously she thought she had the victory. But unconsciously you kept thinking of hot foods. You 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 that 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 runs. And oh some people are redundant. They think of the fact that you can't get two or three tea breaks in Operation Mobilization.

And I think the same way. 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 America.

We haven't even talked about this study. We've started talking about more important things. But I tell you this, unless you learn discipline in the little things, if you are one of those slain 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 a man who cannot control the appetites of the flesh, as small as they might be, will not control the things that are big. It 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 who know when 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 OM streams from the neck up. I can tell you that's the truth. And doctors today will tell you that 60 to 70 percent of all of them 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 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 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 shitless.

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 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. Very stunning words. 2nd Corinthians I think it's 10. 1st Corinthians 10 again.

I really got my Corinthians mixed up this morning. Talks about Israel in the wilderness. Verse 5. But 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. Now follow 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 idolatrous as were some of them as it's written. The people sat down to eat to drink and they rose up to play. That'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 free of 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 this. 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 grumble, 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 don't even 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 appetite for the flesh. And where did they get that? 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 you fall. And I just praise God for verse 13. It's my only hope.

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 you're able. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape it.

He may be able to escape 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. It doesn't say you're going to be forced to take it. You still have to choose. It's very clear. Right there in 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 bent 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 first Corinthians 10 13 there's a way of escape. And I ask him to show me and I take that escape.

Missionary Training as Spiritual Boot Camp

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 it just staggers 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 getting hospitalized before they ever go. Unbelievable. The new 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.