"LOOK NOT AT THE WINE WHEN IT IS RED" AND "BEWARE OF THE CONCISION"

“LOOK NOT AT THE WINE WHEN IT IS RED” AND “BEWARE OF THE CONCISION”

Every saint knows that the effect of grace reaching his soul has been to impart to him a new mind, This mind is contrary to the old nature, and yet it greatly elevates him as a man; it is of the man Christ Jesus. “We have the mind of Christ”. Now the mind of Christ fully enters into and comprehends man’s relation to God, and therefore is superior to any conception, desire, or action of the mind of the natural man. A saint walking in the mind of Christ would not be an eccentricity as a man, save that he would not live to himself but to Him who died for him and rose again. Every act, be it that of a servant or of a master, etc., would be better performed, and all the relations of life would be better maintained, so that he would be in every way a better man, but still a man, though acting from the highest motive. Every thing contemplated or appointed for the first man is peculiarly and pre-eminently set forth and expressed in the new man. The serious point for the faithful soul is to distinguish between what is simply true and proper for the new man, and what would revive the old. Here the spiritual man only can define the line of demarcation. The more I know that I possess a nature like Christ — the perfect One, the Man after God’s heart — the more am I on my guard not to foster or minister to the old nature in me. It is a great moment in the history of our souls when we see that Ishmael must not be tolerated. The flesh is still in us, but the only sure road to progress is ^[p. 280] to know that it is intolerable. But if it be intolerable, we must be careful how we subject it either to temptation or to penance. No amount of the possession of Christ alters the flesh; nay, it exasperates it the more, just as Ishmael was excited to mock Isaac when the whole house was agreeing in festive cheer to make him chief; Genesis 21. If less had been made of Isaac, Ishmael would have remained more passive, and this accounts for the toleration which so many saints give to the flesh, or Ishmael. It is not enough to make a feast for Isaac, but Ishmael must be cast out. It is not enough to “rejoice in the Lord”, but I must “beware of the concision”, Philippians 3. If Christ has in any degree obtained His true place in my heart, I cannot tolerate the flesh that resists Him. But this is not all. I am careful not to go into circumstances or places where it would be addressed either attractively or penitentially, for there it is revived. It is not only that I must not drink the wine, but I am not to look at it when it is red, and I am to beware of the concision, as I would of dogs and evil workers. I am to avoid that which attracts me naturally, that which revives my flesh, and also the exaction which admits its existence while subjecting it to penalties. Whatever be wine, I am not only not to drink to excess, but I am not to look on it when it is red, that is, when it has attraction for me; because the effect of the attraction is to draw me aside, and a saint drawn aside by the flesh has for the time lost his senses, just as a man under the influence of wine. If the flesh gets its way in one thing, it will show itself in every act and thought, however one may have previously walked apart from its influence; and hence a saint who yields to the attraction which feeds his flesh, or to the concision which gives it a place, soon finds that he has lost power on every side. The Spirit is grieved, and there is no spring or joy until in contrition he confesses his sin and learns that the old man has been crucified with Christ, and that he ^[p. 281] must neither revive it by attraction, nor flatter it by asking it to improve, which is penance.

If there be a growing up into the measure of the stature of Christ, there must be a conscious refusal of that which would tend to revive or invigorate the old man. The saint is not only a new creature to grow into the likeness of Christ, from the smallest beginning; if this were all it would be simple enough. But he has to watch and beware lest the things he has to do with should in any way minister to another will in him, which would divert him from God to himself. Self is the circle and centre of man’s mind in his fallen state; but when Christ is formed in the soul, God is the centre and source of everything. Man is simply a man still, but with new powers, new capacities, and new tastes. The whole mechanism and ability of man as a creature is for the Lord as soon as he is in Christ; and hence, as there is conscience, there is fear lest anything should evoke the old man, and divert any of my powers from Christ. It may be right for a saint to migrate to better or milder air in order to be recruited in health, but it is seldom that anyone gains spiritually at such a time, because the wine is red — he is carried away by it; and then it is long and irksome before he recovers the spiritual control he was in before his migration. A swallow migrates surely for milder air, but its time is fully and wisely occupied, so that it gains by the change. It is not necessary that the change to better air or to brighter circumstances should divert the heart from Christ. I merely bring forward this example as one which anyone can examine, or by which he can test himself; but I say I have seldom or never seen a saint go out for recreation, but on his return he had to go through quarantine, as it were, to wash his clothes and shave off his hair morally, before he was restored to the state of soul he was in before his relaxation. I repeat, I do not for a moment say that is necessary that it should be so, because it may be and often ^[p. 282] is lawful and right for a saint to seek air and scenes which would improve his health; and therefore there is no way of accounting for his declension, but that he looked at the wine when it was red.

The first of evil influences is received through the eye. When the Spirit describes the world, He places the lust of the eye first, and if the eye is detained, the temptation has succeeded. The word “look not” is therefore very important. With Eve, “pleasant to the eyes” was corroborative of the lust which Satan had suggested to her; when the eye can be checked, the evil will be avoided, but if the eye governs there will be no escape. The godly soul has a sense of the ease with which any tendency of his flesh can be awakened, and how the mind or heart may be diverted from the Lord. He knows what it is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling. The one who has the deepest and the fullest sense of the purity in which Christ sets him in the presence of God, is the one who is most careful to avoid even the touch of that which contaminates; he fears the reviving of the flesh either by indulgence or by concision. The leper who is pronounced clean in such a precise way is the one who is peculiarly and practically clean, and externally guarded and shielded from all that would touch or defile him. If we had no old nature, and nothing but a new one which was always strengthened by the Spirit of God, it would be very different; but on the contrary, we have a heart and mind which, if not controlled by the Spirit, will be carried away by our own will. There is no abiding inclination in either to be subject to Christ, and each is like a bow which must be bent, for it will not bend of itself; or more properly, like a horse that, unless broken in and reined and guided, would spend his strength in folly and vagrancy. The new nature is ever right in all its inclinations, and therefore it cannot be perverted; but we have a body which is not subject, except as it is coerced. It is not power to sustain it ^[p. 283] that is needed, as with the new nature, but power to suppress, control, and direct it according to the will of God.

There is a great difference between restricting the old man on the principle of “touch not; taste not; handle not”, expecting by self-denial to shape it into something commendable, and refusing it liberty to act at all. If I ask it to do anything, even penance, I admit that it is not dead, and if I evoke it by that which attracts I call it into life. But if I present the body a living sacrifice, I place it under the control and rule of the Spirit of God; and then I avoid everything which would in any way call it into activity, be it that which attracts or that which irritates. It has been thought by some that while you should fear and avoid what would attract your flesh, no harm or loss can be suffered when things are disagreeable or vexatious, and that because they are so you may without hesitation or loss go on with, or be in them. Now anything which diverts the mind or heart from Christ is mischievous. Concision is as contrary to grace and as detrimental to the servant of Christ as is indulgence. Saul in adjuring the people, saying, “Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies”, 1 Samuel 14: 24, and Jephthah in vowing to give unto the Lord an uncalled for surrender (Judges 11: 30), erred in self-will on the one side, as Samson and David did on the other. It is said of the tithes (Deuteronomy 26: 14), “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead”. Neglecting the body is will worship, and just as carnal as the self-indulgence which does not keep it under. The true course is simple and happy, going on day by day, led of the Spirit of God, who gives power and development to the divine nature; but who also controls the vessel, the body, with its thoughts and feelings, for Christ, so that the heart and mind are kept occupied ^[p. 284] with Christ, which is the only pure and unmixed happiness; and this the mere creature owns and expresses in countenance too, when wholly swayed by the Spirit of God. That man only is thoroughly happy who is led by divine power, resisting the will of himself and finding all his pleasure and satisfaction in Christ. He is never true to himself until he comes to this, for he is not true to God; and if I could be true to myself without being true to God, then I should not have been made for God — God would not have made me for Himself.

The heart is thoroughly attracted and satisfied as it is kept occupied with Christ, and the flesh is rightly controlled as there is no one to interest or direct me but Christ. The ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness and peace; but “they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy”.