LUST-OVERCOMING
The most important thing to remember as we talk about sexual
purity is this: God is for you! God
wants you to win. People often view God as their adversary when it comes
to sex: “He’s against me. He’s hates sex. I’m repulsive to Him. He’s ashamed of
me for what I’ve done. And to be perfectly honest, I can’t blame Him much.”
Misconceptions such as this only serve to convince us that our situation is
hopeless and drive us farther away from the arms of Him whose love and support
and affirmation are the only thing that will enable us to win this war with the
flesh.
Sam Storms
Sexual Morality, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Will you give
your hours to fantasizing about and dwelling on and longing for the vile things
that nailed the Lover of your soul to the cursed tree?
The Enemy Within, 1998, P&R Publishing,
p. 97, Used by Permission.
Imagination
is the hotbed where this sin is too often hatched. Guard your thoughts, and
there will be little fear about your actions.
J.C. Ryle
Thoughts for Young Men.
Saving grace
makes a man as willing to leave his lusts as a slave is willing to leave his
galley, or a prisoner his dungeon, or a thief his bolts, or a beggar his rags.
Thomas Brooks
Leadership, v. 16, n. 1.
Sexual
temptation is an issue of the mind. The mind can only act on what has
confronted it through sight, reading, or hearing. Therefore, to guard against
sexual temptation we must be careful what we look at, read, or listen to.
Images are planted which cause lust to take hold. Even when we do not act out
immorality we can be polluted by a mental and emotional fixation on sex.
Jerry White
Copied
from Dangers Men Face by Jerry White © 1997, p. 81-82. Used by Permission of
NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights
reserved.
When sexual
desire rises Satan shifts his missile carriers into high gear. The rise of
sexual desire does not mean victory for Satan, but does mean vulnerability to
Satan.
John Piper
Satan Uses Sexual Desire, Sermon,
December 9, 1984, www.DesiringGod.org,
Used by Permission.
If my thirst
for joy and meaning and passion are satisfied by the presence of the promises
of Christ, the power of sin is broken. We do not yield to the offer of sandwich
meat when we can see the sizzling steak on the grill… At first lust tricks me
into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I
followed the path of purity. But then I take up the sword of the Spirit and
begin to fight… And as I pray for my faith to be satisfied with God’s life and
peace, the sword of the Spirit carves the sugar coating off the poison of lust…
And by the grace of God, (lust’s) alluring power is broken.
John Piper
How Redeemed People Do Battle with Sin,
Decision, Jan. 1990.
We must not
give a sexual image or impulse more than five seconds before we mount a violent
counterattack with the mind. I mean that! Five seconds. In the first two
seconds we shout, "NO! Get out of my head!" In the next two seconds
we cry out: "O God, in the name of Jesus, help
me. Save me now. I am yours." Good beginning. But then the real battle
begins. This is a mind war. The absolute necessity is to get the image and the
impulse out of our mind. How? Get a counter-image into the mind. Fight. Push. Strike. Don't ease up. It must be an image that is so
powerful that the other image cannot survive. There are lust-destroying images
and thoughts.
John Piper
A
Passion for Purity vs. Passive Prayers, Matthew 5:28-29, November 10, 1999, www.DesiringGod.org.
Have you ever
in the first five seconds of temptation, demanded of your mind that it look
steadfastly at the crucified form of Jesus Christ? Picture this. You have just
seen a peek-a-boo blouse inviting further fantasy. You have five seconds.
"No! Get out of my mind! God help me!" Now, immediately, demand of
your mind - you can do this by the Spirit (Romans 8:13). Demand
of your mind to fix its gaze on Christ on the cross. Use all your
fantasizing power to see his lacerated back. Thirty-nine lashes left little
flesh intact. He heaves with his breath up and down against the rough vertical
beam of the cross. Each breath puts splinters into the lacerations. The Lord
gasps. From time to time he screams out with intolerable pain. He tries to pull
away from the wood and the massive spokes through his wrist rip into the nerve
endings and he screams again with agony and pushes up with his feet to give
some relief to his wrists. But the bones and nerves in his pierced feet crush
against each other with anguish and he screams again. There is no relief. His
throat is raw from screaming and thirst. He loses his breath and thinks he is
suffocating, and suddenly his body involuntarily gasps for air and all the
injuries unite in pain. In torment, he forgets about the crown of two-inch
thorns and throws his head back in desperation, only to hit one of the thorns
perpendicular against the cross beam and drive it half an inch into his skull.
His voice reaches a soprano pitch of pain and sobs break over his pain-wracked
body as every cry brings more and more pain. Now, I am not thinking about the
blouse any more. I am at Calvary. These two images are not compatible.
John Piper
A
Passion for Purity vs. Passive Prayers, Matthew 5:28-29, November 10, 1999, www.DesiringGod.org.
The evil in our desires often lies not in what we want
but in the fact that we want it too much. Natural affections (for any good
thing) become inordinate, ruling cravings. We are meant to be ruled by godly
passions and desires. Natural desires for good things are meant to exist
subordinate to our desire to please the Giver of gifts. Grasping that the evil
lies in the ruling status of the desire, not the object, is frequently a
turning point in self-understanding, in seeing the need for Christ’s mercies,
and in changing.
David Powlison
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers,
2003, p. 149.
Pop theologies baptize the longings of sinful hearts:
health and wealth, significance and security, self-esteem, power to get what
you want. But the Holy Spirit is in the business of changing what you want.
David Powlison
Seeing With New Eyes, P&R Publishers,
2003, p. 219.
Imagination is
a God-given gift; but if it is fed dirt by the eye, it will be dirty. All sin,
not least sexual sin, begins with the imagination. Therefore what feeds the
imagination is of maximum importance in the pursuit of kingdom righteousness
(Phil. 4:8).
D.A. Carson
Matthew, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan,
1984, p. 151.