Treasures New and Old

God’s Pattern for His Disciples: Make No Provision for the Flesh

We are taking a deeper look at the discipleship lifestyle than we did in 2020 by looking at what I call God’s pattern for His disciples.

For our article this month, we will look at our battle against the old nature, our old man called the “flesh”. So far in this series we have looked at what being a disciple of Christ means – guarding our hearts, and making our calling and election sure, and being of one mind with Christ and one another.

Make No Provision for the Flesh

I suspect that in all of us there is a quiet war raging, our spirit against our old man, the flesh. Every one of us has this battle. Peter and Paul and others of the disciples expressed their frustration at times in their need to overcome the flesh so that they could walk in the Spirit. I’ve selected several sections of Scripture for this month’s article that have some specific goals to be accomplished in this battle against the flesh.

It’s not that we just have to keep down the old flesh, but we must replace it with something. Remember the parable about the strongman who cleaned out his house of a demon but didn’t replace it with anything? The demon came back with seven more demons that were worse than he. We can’t just beat down the flesh alone. We must strive to replace the flesh with something better, specifically the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to get rid of bad habits, but we also have to replace them with good habits.

The universe abhors a void. Even though the vastness of space appears to be a vacuum (with the exception of stars, planets, asteroids, and comets), we know it’s not because we measured particles all over space. Not to mention the light waves, gamma waves, x-rays, neutrinos, and all sorts of other things that are floating around in what we think is the vacuum of space.

In the spiritual world, an empty void is also abhorred. Therefore, “add to your faith . . .”

Let’s start by dipping into 2 Peter 3:14-18. We once again find that word diligent staring us in the face. A reminder that this is not a casual lifestyle that we are embarked on. In fact, if we’re casual about being a Christian, we will quickly find ourselves being a casualty. So here Peter starts out telling us to be diligent that we may be found in Him, that is in Christ, without spot and blameless and with His peace.

I also notice that he uses the word long-suffering. Even though he’s talking about the Lord’s long-suffering, there is a certain amount of long-suffering we must endure as well as we battle the flesh.

In this section of Scripture, Peter is reminding us also of the dangers of listening to the world and to outside sources that are not believers. He calls them the “unlearned and unstable”, and they are guilty of wresting the Scriptures. They do so to their own destruction. But unfortunately, they drag down a lot of other weaker believers with them.

I remember in college as a new believer hearing from some “youth teacher” that a betroth couple can go ahead and engage in sexual activity because, after all, betrothal in the Bible was just like being married. The logic is terribly flawed. But I recognized that a number of new young believers bought into the lie. That lie totally ignores all the warnings against fornication, adultery, and sex before marriage. Obviously, this young teacher was wresting the Scriptures and did so not just to his own hurt, but to those young people listening to him.

So, one of the first things in our battle against the flesh is to be careful not to listen to the outside sources that are trying to destroy us with worldly wisdom. It may be that they don’t think they’re trying to destroy us, they think they’re helping us. But they are totally ignorant of the principles in God’s Word. We are not to be thus! Number one step in the battle against the flesh is to be armed with God’s truth. Have it memorized. Meditate upon it. Make it part of your being. Like Job said, “it is my necessary food.”

In this section of Scripture, Peter closes with a warning to remain steadfast, being aware of the error of the wicked, and avoiding it at all costs. But again, we need to replace what we’re avoiding. Therefore, Peter tells us to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, just avoiding dangerous worldly wisdom is not enough. It must be replaced. And that’s why we must grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:14-18:

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

This next section of Scripture from Romans also has opposing behaviors.

On the positive side, Paul reminds us not to owe anyone anything but love. We are to love one another and doing so fulfills the law.

On the negative side, Paul lists a lot of things that the flesh would like to do that we are not to do: adultery, murder, stealing, lying, coveting, rioting, drunkenness, chambering, wantonness, strife, and envying. These are dramatic sinful acts of the flesh; however, the lack of love for our Christian brother of sister (that God calls our neighbor) is just as wrong as those more heinous sins that Paul has listed. Paul points out that loving your Christian brothers and sisters in Christ is a fulfillment of the law, even though we’re not under the law, but under grace.

Then he says, “it’s high time that you awake out of sleep.” Clearly Paul is referring to those believers who are spiritually lethargic, unconscious to the Spirit’s call, and unable to understand the Scriptures (may not even be that interested in reading them). Paul points out that our salvation is closer than any time in the past. It draws closer every day. Therefore, it behooves us to always be ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, as we’re putting off all those sinful acts of the flesh, we put on not just love, but the armor of light (God’s truth) and honestly, and, of course, this amounts to putting on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul closes this section in Romans, which I have underlined, with a warning to make no provision for the flesh. As you can see, the two opposing behaviors are: putting on the Lord Jesus Christ while not making provision for the flesh and the lusts of the flesh. And of course, lust, in this case, doesn’t necessarily mean sexual. It can mean gluttony, a desire for power, a desire to control others, anger, demanding your rights verses fulfilling your responsibility, and other such things. When we give way to the flesh’s cravings and desires, we are doing the opposite of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, which in this section of the Scripture, includes loving our neighbor and thus fulfilling the law.

Romans 13:8-14 (emphasis added):

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

I added this verse in Galatians as a reminder that if you and I have been baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ, symbolically, we have been putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. We may forget, however, that the day we accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, Christ baptized us into His Holy Spirit. Water baptism is simply the outward sign of what Christ has already done inwardly for us. That is why in Galatians Paul can say that we have put on Christ because we have been baptized into the Spirit.

Galatians 3:2: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Here is another section of Scripture by Paul to the Ephesians giving them essentially the same warning that we saw in Romans. If you get an opportunity, read all of Chapter 4 of Ephesians to get a sense of what we did not learn in Christ. Paul starts out here in verse 20 referring back to the things before this verse that we have not so learned in Christ. The next phrase is a quote, “if so be that ye have heard him.” And I am reminded that although you and I have not actually heard Jesus Christ’s voice, we have heard His words by those who preach it. And we all know that faith cometh by hearing, and that hearing is of the hearing of God’s Word.

So here are two opposing things again. We are to put on the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and put off the former conversation of the lust of the flesh. We’re to be renewed in the spirit of our mind in righteousness and holiness and put away lying, anger, and other sins. Once again, we see the truth that we can’t leave a void in our spirits of our souls. When we clean house and get rid of those things that are opposing to walking in the light, we must replace them with God’s truth, righteousness, holiness, and a knowledge of Him.

Ephesians 4:20-27: “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

It would seem Paul has the same basic problem with all of the early churches in the New Testament. Once again, Paul is telling those in Colossae to mortify the members of their body, that is, the lust of the flesh. He then lists some of them: fornication, uncleanness, improper affections (he calls them inordinate), covetousness, and evil behaviors. He reminds us that these lusts of the flesh behaviors bring the wrath of God on the children of disobedience (the unsaved). Such behaviors in a believer will most certainly bring disciplinary action from the Father. Paul is reminding those in Colossae that they once walked that way, but they are no longer to walk that way.

He tells us to put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of our mouth, and lying. He likens it to having put off the old man which is exactly what new believers in Christ need to do. And, again, the opposing force is to put on the new man, be renewed in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and put on the following: “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.”

I’m sure by now you see a clear pattern. Making no provision for the flesh has a two-pronged strategy. We put off the lustful things, and we put on the godly things, the things that please our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:5-13:

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Read these other four passages of Scripture on your own. I think you’ll see the same pattern that we have seen in the verses before this point. We are debtors. We are clearly debtors to the Lord Jesus Christ who has redeemed us to God, forgiven our sins, began a new work in us, is conforming us into His image, has justified us, is sanctifying us, and will glorify us one day. As you study these verses, find those things that we’re supposed to do and strive to do them while putting off the things of the flesh.

Romans 8:12-15: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Galatians 5:16-25:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

1 Peter 2:11-12: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from the fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glory God in the day of visitation.”

1 John 2:15-17: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Therefore, dearly beloved, remember who you are – daughters and sons of the living God. Remember your calling and election. Remember to guard your heart. Remember to  be of one mind with Christ and with the brothers and sisters. Keep working at making no provision for the flesh but, instead, replacing it with those things which are pleasing to God and beneficial for our growth. And, finally, remember that you’re working to become one of Christ’s disciples.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

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