HIGHLIGHTS
IN JOSHUANumber 15
THE PLAGUE OF THE FLESH
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"Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah."
Joshua 15:63
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HIGHLIGHTS
IN JOSHUA
Number 15
THE PLAGUE OF THE FLESH
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"Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah."
Joshua 15:63
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CHAPTER fifteen of Joshua is concerned with the allotment for Judah in the promised land. This last verse of the chapter is very instructive. It tells us that the heathen and worldly Jebusites could not be totally dislodged from their territory, specially in the capital Jerusalem. We have the same fact for Ephraim in the next chapter and verse 10. This fact is specially interesting because it is a valuable illustration of the condition of the believer with regard to the flesh or the sinful nature. Paul speaks of the flesh in Galatians 5:16,17 and speaks of the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit in the life of the believer.
THE PROBLEM OF THE FLESH
The point we need to notice from our text is that the Jebusites lived amongst the people of Judah permanently. Their attitude to life and way of life was always present amongst the people of Judah exercising a continual influence of the world and godlessness. They could not be dislodged, and they could not be changed.
When we are born again we receive new life. A new spiritual life is born within us which is pure and holy and undefiled by sin. It is created in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness as Paul tells us in Ephesians 4. It is an entirely new creation as Paul describes it in Corinthians. The problem is that the new birth does not take us immediately out of this present evil world. We are meant to go on living in this world, and the trouble is that the only way we can go on living in this world is through our physical bodies which contain this sinful flesh, which is unchanged by new birth, and is still corrupt with all the evil desires and propensities that it has had since our physical birth. This is like the Jebusites amongst the people of Judah. It can't be removed or changed in this life. We must look for redemption which is complete when at the end of this life we are separated forever from this sinful flesh, taken into glory and receive a new resurrection body like Christ's resurrection body. This is what Paul is talking about at the end of Romans 7 when he speaks thankfully of the victory we have at the end through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as the Jebusites were a continual influence for evil amongst the people of Judah, so the flesh is always present with its evil desires, which is a fruitful ground for all Satan's temptations. The people of Judah could see the Jebusites. Our problem is that the flesh is not so visible and we can often forget and be off our guard. The flesh cannot defile the new life born within us. This is why the Holy Spirit can dwell within the believer. He could not unless there was a perfectly holy life within the believer in which he could dwell. But the flesh can and does cause us trouble and cause us to fall into sin, just as the influence of the Jebusites led Judah often into sin and idolatry. This is the problem of the flesh.
THE PLAGUE OF THE FLESH
The plague of the flesh is that it is, like the Jebusites, a continual 5th column within the believer. It cannot be removed and it cannot be changed. Our lives grow more holy not be making the flesh better, but by more and more successfully putting to death the flesh, by constantly turning away from it and crucifying its desires and influence.
The problem is that it seems to me that very few Christians understand these facts about the flesh properly. They seem to believe that the flesh can be improved. On the one hand they can't understand all the sinful desires and thoughts that continually spring up within them, and are often cast down with guilt when these invade their mind. We need to take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 where he says that it is no more he that has these thoughts and desires, but it is the sin in the flesh that dwells within him. We have not sinned or fallen because these thoughts plague us. In fact because we feel plagued by them and hate them it reveals the true holy life within us. For this reason they can be a source of comfort as well as pain.
On the other hand they don't properly understand that it is no part of redemption that our earthly bodies with the indwelling sin in the flesh is to be changed in this life. They don't understand that it is not in the purpose of God for it to be changed. Holiness is the way we think and act. We do grow more holy and sanctified, not by the flesh being changed, but by mortification of the flesh, and living as the new born self within leads us. Redemption from this earthly body in God's plan is by the replacing of this sinful body by a new body with the resurrection of the body at Christ's second coming. At physical death we shall be totally delivered from sin, because this sinful body will be left in this sinful world to be no more.
DEALING WITH THE FLESH
The case of the Jebusites still living amongst the Israelites is again helpful as an illustration. The Jebusites lived and carried on business and trade with the people of Judah. In their own communities they lived the same godless life they had always lived. They carried on their idolatrous worship. How were the people of God to deal with their presence.
Judah could not avoid contact with the Jebusites altogether. They no doubt used them as servants, and did business with them on a business level. The same is true of the flesh and our earthly bodies. The body is our servant. It is the means by which we express ourselves, and through which the new life manifests itself. What we must be sure to avoid is to allow the desires of the body and the flesh to dominate us or overcome our wills. It is the result of the fall into sin by Adam that these earthly bodies have been corrupted, so that the normal appetites of the body have got out of control, and in the unsaved dominate life in one way or another. The flesh still has this corruption. The believer recognizes this corruption through the new life they have. They also have the Holy Spirit's instruction and influence.
While using the body which is necessary, the believer must never allow the flesh to dominate so that the lusts which spring up are never allowed free rein. The Israelites were wise if they did not socialise with the Jebusites and sit down and mingle with their culture and living. This is what is necessary with the flesh. We mortify the flesh by starving it of expression.
When dealing with the flesh, it is important to recognize the lusts of the flesh which are our particular problem. The lusts of the flesh manifest themselves in different ways in different people. Some succumb to greed. Others are prone to the weakness of sexual desire. Others are afflicted with pride, and others with sloth. So the list widens. When using and living through our bodies, we must be careful to avoid those things which stimulate those particular lusts of the flesh which are our problem. This is particularly important in deciding what ministry for the Lord we will engage in. Some can go into the seamy side of the sex world and witness relatively untouched. Another would put himself into great danger by engaging in witness in such an environment.
Also in our lives, although all things are good as God has given them, we must be careful to live in moderation. For example it is proper for a Christian to invest money in shares and investments. This is a right and proper way to look after the material wealth God has given us in a prudent way. However we must always guard against the temptation to get drawn into the desire to get rich by excessive time given to exploiting the financial markets, so that making money suddenly has become that which dominates our lives. In this respect for the believer to engage in lotteries and gambling of any sort is not only unwise it is unnecessary and dangerous, apart from the moral issues involved in games of chance and the denial of God. Lotteries are an expression of belief in a god of chance.
THE POSITIVE SIDE OF DEALING WITH THE FLESH
The negative side of dealing with the flesh is important. However what is more important is positively living as the new life and the Spirit is telling us to. Through the new life we can see, appreciate, and love the life of God, with its holiness and love. This new life is now the real person. To live for the flesh is to deny the new born person that God has created us to be.
Paul in Galatians 5:16 writes "Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature". The question is how we do this. Let us think of the people of Judah in their living with the Jebusites amongst them. There among them was the life of the Jebusites which the Israelite's sinful nature, the flesh, was attracted to. How did they combat this attraction. They combated it by the expulsive power of a new affection. This is the only way to progress in sanctification. It is no good dwelling on our temptations and praying hard for strength to over come them. This only exacerbate the problem. The more we think about the temptation the more attractive it will grow. Nor is it much good to be always being pressed with our duty, and moral uprightness. This only places upon us a burden we are not able to bear, and covers us with guilt and a sense of failure whenever we fail. This was the way of the Pharisee, which created despair on the one hand, and self-righteous pride on the other.
No! If the people of Judah were to avoid being seduced by the Jebusites, they needed to dwell much on all that the Lord had done for them, from the promise of God to Abraham, right through the deliverance from Egypt right up to the tremendous victories given in the fulfillment of the promise of God to give them the promised land. They needed to dwell on the wonderful grace of God to them which never ceased to love them even through the awful times of faithlessness and turning back which they showed. They needed to remember how precious the Lord had been to them, and the delights of following him and dwelling in his love and favour.
It is so sad that so much preaching today is all about Christian duty. There is comparatively few sermons that dwell on the love, grace and goodness of God to sinners in Jesus Christ. If we are to turn away from sin and temptation we must actively be experiencing and feeling the love of God towards us. It is no good to just remember how we felt at our conversion. We must today, in the struggles of today, feel conscious of the grace of God in Jesus, and God's good hand of love upon us. We must have a rich sense of the wonder of God's grace in the provision of righteousness that meets all his holy demands, and that it is provided freely. We must be feeling amazed at the love which has forgiven all our sins in Christ right up to the day we die, so that there is now no condemnation for us. We must be appreciating the wisdom of God which found a way so that he could forgive yet not violate his law or his holiness, and we must feel the love that did not shrink at the cost of visiting his wrath on his one and only well-beloved Son.
It is the business of the preacher to make these things live for the people to whom he or she preaches. It is the business of every believer to attend the means of grace, the reading and meditating on God's word, the privilege of prayer, and the attendance upon gospel preaching, so that these truths of grace are not only known but more and more deeply felt in the heart.
This is the first and foremost way we live by the Spirit. It is the Spirit's role to make Christ real to us, and cause him to live vividly before our hearts and minds. Then we will find such love in our hearts for God that we shall not want to sin against him. This is the expulsive power of a new affection.
This is further enhanced by living for Jesus in the sharing of this gospel, and the showing in our lives that Christ-like love which loves people as they are and seeks to do good to them. We are not being Christ-like if we are always judgemental and critical of others. This was the mistake of the Pharisees. They sought to do the work of God by binding the people with law and them condemning and rejecting any transgression of this law. So often it was not the law of God they were pressing, but the additions and false understanding of the law of God.
By sharing our experience of Christ and loving others as Christ has loved us, we are actively living in Christ and he in us. When this is so, then the love of God fills our lives, and the desires of the flesh hold little attraction. When we live in the atmosphere of the heavenlies, we have little taste for the things of the world. It is the business of the worship of the church to give the congregation a taste of heaven and communion with Christ every time of worship.
CONCLUSION
Even though we shall never be free from the flesh and its desires in this earthly life, we have been raised together with Christ and made to sit in heavenly places with him. As Mary did the better thing by sitting at the feet of Jesus, so we will find the blessing she did in fellowship with Jesus.