THE INTRUSION OF THE FLESH

THE INTRUSION OF THE FLESH

One of the great snares of this day is the delusion that the flesh can be brought into the sanctuary; and it is sad and fearful how this occurs in various ways, and never without serious loss, and seasons of darkness or exposure to the christian. All the trouble in the assembly at Corinth was caused by the allowance of the flesh. They were carnal and walked as men. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we clearly understand that the habitation of God is only through the Spirit, and that the Spirit never coalesces with the flesh. On the contrary, It lusts against the flesh. It is in relentless opposition to it. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”. This truth cuts at the root of every human feeling and desire, and is the one most opposed by man’s mind. For the Spirit lusts against the flesh, “that ye should not do those things which ye desire”. The first great thing for the saint to understand is that, in order to please God and be free from the power of the flesh, he must be in the Spirit. It is not doing or engaging in right things or services or meetings which will preserve him from the flesh; the only way is by keeping in that which is the opponent of the flesh, even the Spirit. To walk about in the practical abnegation of my natural mind and feelings in religious things, is a terrible ordeal to man. The bitterest condemnation to the old man, and the one which he in every way seeks to evade, is that he must in no wise come into the sanctuary.

In Psalm 73 I am taught the difference between a regenerate soul which looks out on the world from its own point of view, and one which is in the sanctuary with God. If I am the former, I regard and measure everything in relation to myself; if the latter, God is before me, and He is my standard. I see things as they are before Him. The Spirit keeps me there, and Christ is manifested to me. I am happy and blessed, not by seeing what I am, but by seeing and knowing Him. When the flesh intrudes and is allowed any place, it is ever with the result that I am ruled by it, for the Spirit has ceased to rule. If I suffer it to intrude in any way, be it in singing or praying or preaching, I shall find before long that what I have been occupied with has fostered the flesh instead of subduing it. And this it is which accounts for the little strength which saints have for ordinary life after seasons which have been considered the most animated and refreshing. Now the fact of possessing spiritual gifts does not preserve one from the intrusion of the flesh, as we see by the epistle to the Corinthians. The heart of man is deceitful above all things. The flesh would have led Paul to be exalted above measure because of his vision in the third heaven, where he in his flesh was not even acknowledged. It would have led him to boast of having been where he ^[p. 17] as a man was so completely ignored and passed over as one non-existent, that whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell. There is a solemnity and weight about one who is in the Spirit, outside the flesh, which cannot be mistaken. There is a faith in Christ and a rest in God entirely different from the satisfaction which thrills the natural mind by the force of language or the pathos of music. Like the sacred perfume of the sanctuary (Exodus 30: 37 - 38), it is unique and not to be imitated; there is a liberty in the glory which the Spirit alone possesses. That we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit is the main principle of our present position and power. If I am in the Spirit, Christ is my object, and everything that I do is according to His mind, and therefore with edification to the saints and growth to myself. If not, the door is open to the flesh, and there is no victory over it. When the flesh is allowed any entrance, there is a dark part in the body (Luke 11: 35 - 36), and this dark part affects the whole body like a waster on a candle; the light is obstructed, and the body is not luminous. Moreover, if the flesh be even apparently sanctioned before God, there is an unquestionable warrant for giving it a place among men; whereas if it be thoroughly and entirely refused any place before God, there can be no warrant for its position or acknowledgment before men. If allowed in a christian it must be exposed; there will either be open failure or darkness of soul, for “he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption”.