New Testament from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5.
We're going to read verses 27 to 30
as we continue to work through the Sermon on the Mount.
So Jesus says this,
You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away,
for it is better that you lose one of your members
than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away,
for it is better that you lose one of your members
than your whole body goes into hell.
This is God's holy word.
So Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 27,
he quotes from the seventh commandment in the Old Testament
and says, you shall not commit adultery.
And then in verse 27, he then says,
and let me tell you that if you've looked at another person with lust in your heart,
you've committed adultery in your heart.
Now, we tonight are going to talk about adultery and lust
and some of the struggles we faced in terms of human sexuality.
So if you're a visitor, let me just say welcome to you.
Glad to have you tonight.
Glad you came along.
It's a perfect night for you to be here.
It's God's word.
It's always good.
Why are we doing this tonight?
Why are we talking about this?
Let me give you a few reasons while it's really,
really important for us to think about this issue.
Number one, we are working our way through the Sermon on the Mount,
and this is the passage we're on.
So that's the first important reason,
is that we're working our way through the Bible,
and so we want to talk about anything the Bible talks about.
And then secondly, most people in our culture,
in a modern and post-Christian city like the city of Edinburgh,
think that Christianity is all about rules
and think that the biggest rule that Christians really want to push
is rules surrounding sexual ethics.
And so people think if you're going to be a Christian,
it's about being a certain type of person.
Rules, rules, rules.
And the biggest thing and the most important thing
is to be committed to marriage
and to never having any sexual expression outside of marriage,
and that's what it means to be a Christian.
And I think a lot of people in our city
probably think about Christianity in that way.
And sometimes, as one writer puts it,
even in the church,
we can struggle with frail devotion to rules
driven by duty, not desire.
And so it's very possible that even as Christians,
if you come tonight as a Christian,
you can look at something like the Seventh Commandment
or Jesus saying,
and let me take that to the next level
and say that if you struggle with lust,
any time we struggle with lust,
we've committed adultery in our heart,
and we can come and think,
I don't know why that is,
but I just know that I have to obey it.
That's what it means to be a Christian,
just to follow the rules,
rules, rules, rules.
And we've got to come and see
that what the Sermon on the Mount is doing
is it's offering something very different than rules.
It's offering a life of joy and peace
that walks in the grain of reality
the way God has made it.
So the Sermon on the Mount
and this issue of human sexuality
is teaching us what it means
to actually walk along the grain lines,
the wood lines,
of the way God actually made the world.
And that's why when we come to this issue,
when we come to so many issues,
if we fail to walk along the grain
as God has made it,
if you break the rules
in the way God has ordered them,
the biggest issue is that
they break you.
You'll be broken by them.
And so the Sermon on the Mount
comes to first offer you
a life of joy and peace,
but it does so also to protect.
Not to say Christianity is all about rules.
No, instead to offer you protection
and help and healing.
That's what it's here for.
The third reason is that most of us,
most people and everybody in our city
comes to this topic with scars in their lives.
And that's because sexuality,
human sexuality expressed,
has incredible power.
It's got power to fulfill
in the right context,
and it has power to break you,
to destroy your life
when engaged in the wrong context.
And so in the modern world,
people will say things like,
sex is existentially meaningless.
It's part of the marketplace.
It's meaningless unless somebody chooses
to give it meaning.
And boy, because of that mentality,
that sexuality expressed is meaningless,
existentially meaningless,
so many people have come from that mentality
with deep, deep scars in their lives.
And probably many of us are not immune to that.
I think there's probably an unprecedented level
of pain all over our city
based on the free expression,
quote unquote, of sexuality
because of the modern mentality
that sex is just a marketplace.
And that, let me put it like this,
one writer says it like this,
in the sexual revolution,
the sexual revolution has not left behind
any winners, only losers.
And when we think about human sexuality
expressed in utter options and freedom,
the writers have shown us,
the sociologists, the commentators,
the philosophers,
that all we leave behind
is a wake of pain and losers.
And so it's really important
that we come tonight
because some of us will come
with guilt and shame
in our lives that we've buried
for things that we've done
or things that have happened to us
in the past.
Many of us will come tonight
with regret
and deep hurt
over sexuality expressed
in our past.
Some of us will come
with a lack of fulfillment
and loneliness
in relationships.
We'll come maybe,
maybe,
maybe tonight
with a feeling
that you have nowhere to go,
nobody to talk to,
no help
to get you out of deep,
dark patterns
that are really damaging
when it comes to sexuality.
And so we come tonight
with deep need
and we read,
that's all we read
in our call to worship,
Luke 5, 31.
Jesus comes tonight
and says,
I came for those,
I didn't come for the people
that are well,
I came for the people
that are sick,
I came for the people
that know they need healing,
I came as the great physician
so Jesus comes tonight
in the Sermon on the Mount
to help us
and to protect us
and to heal us
in these issues.
And so let's think
about two things together.
Number one,
what is wrong with lust?
Why is lust wrong?
And then number two,
the path to healing.
All right,
so first,
why is lust wrong?
Jesus,
we saw here,
is reflecting
on the seventh commandment.
So he says in verse 27,
you have heard
that it was said,
you shall not commit adultery.
That's a quote
from the Ten Commandments.
And the word adultery
is well known,
it technically means
being unfaithful
to one's spouse,
cheating on a spouse
in the context of marriage.
And in the first century,
just like in the Old Testament,
we see that that word
has a whole family of words
that broaden out the list
and so that there's
a whole spectrum
of the ways
we can commit adultery.
So in the Westminster
larger catechism,
the confession
that we subscribe to
here at St. Columbus,
it talks about a whole list.
What does adultery mean?
It's much more than that.
Paul uses another word,
fornication,
the Greek word porneia,
from which we get
the word pornography.
And it talks about
sexual sin as a spectrum
that exists
in all sorts of degrees,
right?
And of course,
we all know that.
But in verse 28,
Jesus says,
there's a foundation,
a base,
a line
where sexuality expressed
becomes sinful.
And what is it?
And he tells us
in verse 28,
he says,
I say to you
with utter authority
that anyone
that has looked
at another person
would lust in their heart,
in their heart
and in their imagination
has already committed adultery.
In the very deep recesses
of the soul,
you've already committed adultery.
Now that means
that Jesus does something
that no one expected
in the first century.
He broadens the concept
of the line
of where sexual sin begins.
All the way down
to the soul,
all the way down
to the heart,
all the way down
to the imagination,
to lust itself.
And look,
in our modern world,
everybody agrees.
Everybody tends still
to agree
in the marketplace
of human sexuality
that is this 21st century
that adultery is bad.
Adultery in the most basic sense.
There's not that many people
that would argue for it,
right?
Because nobody wants
to be cheated on.
And so in the modern world,
the ethic is
do what you want
as long as you don't
harm anybody,
as long as there's consent.
And so we all feel
that if I'm cheated on,
I've been harmed.
And so people generally
will say,
yeah,
don't cheat on people.
Adultery is bad.
Don't break your promises.
But when it comes
to what Jesus does
in verse 28,
and he says,
but that's not the line.
Lust is the line.
Boy,
people come
in our modern world
and they say,
lust,
what is that doing
to anybody?
That's me.
That's just my imagination
and my heart.
That doesn't bother anybody.
It doesn't harm anybody.
And so how in the world
can that be a problem?
Can that be an issue for us?
And so what Jesus is doing
is here something
that was shocking,
that was broadening
what was very narrow
in the first century
just like today.
And here's what he does
in Matthew 5 here.
He says,
when he says,
you've heard it said,
you shall not commit adultery,
he's not just quoting
the Ten Commandments,
the Seventh Commandment.
He's also quoting
how the Ten Commandments
were interpreted
in the first century.
So when he says,
you've heard it said,
he's talking about
the way that had been taught
by the scribes
and the Pharisees
in that time.
And the way that they taught
about this issue of adultery
is very,
it's actually incredibly similar
to the way we think about it
in our modern city.
And so what did they say?
Well, they took it
very, very, very literally.
You shall not commit adultery.
And that means
the boundaries of sexual sin
are quite narrow.
To commit adultery
means that you actually
are married
and you cheat,
you commit adultery
relative to having a spouse.
And so the Pharisees
and the scribes said,
the way is narrow
to commit this sin.
You know,
you have to actually be married
and you have to actually
commit the act
of committing adultery
against your spouse.
And that means
that what they did
was they left
a really broad space
for freedom,
that they could live their lives
in other ways
that they wanted to live them.
Lust was not really
on the mind
as an issue.
And in the same way
when you come to the modern world,
what do modern people say?
Most ways,
modern people say
most ways
of expressing sexuality
is absolutely fine.
Most ways.
Adultery, yeah,
that's bad.
That's a narrow path
that you don't want to go down.
But every other way
is pretty much fine
as long as you're not
doing anybody any harm
and as long as you have consent.
And you see,
just like the Pharisees
and scribes
in the first century
and modern people today,
everybody is trying
to make the way,
the way of actually
doing wrong
really narrow
in the path of freedom,
options,
really, really broad.
And Jesus comes
and does the exact opposite.
He says,
actually,
where does the line begin?
Sometimes when I meet
with people
who are in a dating relationship
or thinking about marriage,
they want to know
when it comes to sexual expression,
where's the line?
And Jesus gives it to us.
He says,
lust is the line.
Desires in the heart,
that's where it begins.
That's where the sin problem
actually starts.
Lust is the line.
And so we've got to think
for a second about lust.
It's all about the heart,
he says.
And what is this thing
that he's talking about?
Now,
last week,
Lewis helped us think
about the fact that
murder,
physical murder,
the act of violence
begins with murder
in the heart,
as Jesus put it,
unjust anger.
And what did he say?
He said,
you can have unjust anger
in your heart
and that unjust anger,
unrepented of,
becomes disdain.
And disdain,
unrepented of,
becomes hatred.
And hatred,
unrepented of,
can become violence.
So he talked about
anger on a spectrum,
all the way from
anger in the heart
to murder itself.
And in the same way,
he comes and says
that sexual sin
is a spectrum.
And lust,
imagination,
lustful intent
in the heart,
is on the same line
as the act of adultery
itself.
The very same thing.
And so what is this
wrongdoing,
lust in the heart
that he's talking about?
Okay,
this word for lust
in Greek
is a word that simply
means desire.
Desire.
And if it's translated
with its full intent,
its meaning,
it means over-desire.
So you can lust,
you can have over-desire
for anything.
It's not just expressed
in sexuality.
You can long for things
in wrong ways
and have the object
of your desire
be anything at all.
Right,
so Jesus is saying here
lust is simply
when you want
good things in life
in really bad ways.
That your affections,
your longings,
your imagination
about those things
is disordered.
You can take anything
in life and over-want it,
want it too much.
And how do you know
when that's happened?
It's when you want
something more
than you want God himself.
Lust happens
anytime you desire
anything in this life
more than you long
for God himself.
And so we are all,
we are all prone.
Calvin,
what did he say?
John Calvin,
he said that the human heart
is an idol-making factory,
that we're all cranking out
things that we lust after,
idols that we lust after
all the time.
And that's exactly
what Jesus is talking
about here,
but he's talking about it
in the frame particularly
of sexual lust,
the lustful intent
in the realm of sexuality.
And it's important
to say then that
if lust,
the word lust,
over-desire,
means misplaced desires
or good things,
good things in this life
that we mistreat
by desiring them
in the wrong ways.
Jesus is not in any way
being prudish
about sex and sexuality,
not at all.
And boy,
if you read through the Bible,
you find that out,
that the Bible
is not prudish
about these things,
not at all.
Read the Song of Songs
sometime
and you'll find out
what the Bible says
about these things.
No, not at all.
He's talking about
these things misplaced,
disordered,
disorganized
from the grain of reality
the way things should be.
So what is wrong with lust?
What is wrong
with desiring someone
with lustful intent?
And let me give you
just two deep reasons why.
And we could talk about this
for a long time,
but I can't do that,
so I'm just going to give you two.
And the first is this.
Lust is wrong
because lust
is fundamentally selfish.
It's greedy.
Lust is
an attempt
in the imagination
and in the heart
to satisfy
an appetite
with selfish motivation.
So C.S. Lewis
talks about this
and he says,
the real damage of lust,
the real damage
of pornography,
the real damage
of sexual expression
outside of marriage
in any context
is that it makes us
more and more selfish,
he writes,
because we were not made
for sexual action,
physical union
without total union.
And so,
we're made
for emotional union,
spiritual union,
legal union
in marriage,
and only then
physical union.
And when you don't have
a relationship
of total union,
emotional union,
where you've been called
to give yourself away
to somebody emotionally,
legal union,
where you've been called
to make vows to somebody
and say,
no matter what happens,
as bad as it gets,
I'll stick with you
and it'll be for you,
then you've actually
committed selfishness
when you lust
after them
for just one type
of union,
physical union.
All you're doing
is trying to attempt
self-satisfaction
without the costliness
of the deep commitment
that's required
in giving yourself away
to somebody totally,
totally in total union.
That's the first reason.
When you read
the old writers
in the Christian tradition
on what makes lust
so damaging,
you know what the first thing
they say is every time?
Because it makes people selfish.
More and more selfish,
more and more self-centered
by seeking satisfaction
through your own means,
without having to give yourself
away to anybody
in any other way.
The second reason
that you see quite often
throughout Christian history,
church history on this,
of what's wrong with this
is it treats other people
as less than whole people.
So every single one of us
has been made
in the image of God
and we've got emotions
and reason
and personality
and habits
and preferences
and loves
and all of us
have ways of speaking
and accents
and places we're from
and stories
and narratives
and that's the whole
of who we are.
So every single one of us
is in God's image.
We are a unity
in diversity.
We are one person
made up of so many parts.
But when we lust
after people sexually,
lustful intent
and the imagination
and the heart,
what is happening
is that we're reducing
the holistic image of God
down to nothing
but physical attractiveness.
We've taken a person
who was made
in the image of God
and we've said
all you really are
is your physicality.
The measure of your beauty.
That's it.
Physical attractiveness
is all that you are.
Now it's really interesting
that when you think
about the Ten Commandments
and the Second Commandment,
God says,
do not make any images of me.
No graven images.
And when you get
to the prophets,
the prophets say to Israel
when they make graven images,
what do the prophets say?
They say,
you have committed adultery
against God.
You've cheated on Him.
You've tried to reduce God
down to an image.
You've tried to objectify Him
in an object itself
and so you've committed
adultery against Him.
And likewise,
in a lesser way
but a real way,
in the Bible,
it says when you objectify
a person
who is the image of God
and reduce them
to nothing but their physicality,
their physical attractiveness,
you have done what?
Committed adultery
in the heart.
So in the same way
that you can commit adultery
against God
by whittling Him down
to some little idol
that you worship,
in the same way
you can whittle a person
down to nothing
but their physical attractiveness
and commit the very same sin
towards that person.
Adultery of the heart
we learn here.
And so Jesus says,
now He takes this,
He turns this up to 11
because in verses 28 to 30,
what does He say?
He says,
in 29 to 30,
I should say,
if your right eye
causes you to sin,
you tear it out.
If your right hand
causes you to sin,
rip it off.
Right?
What is He doing there?
He's being hyperbolic,
definitely,
but He's being hyperbolic
to make a point.
He's saying that lust is serious
because lust never stays
where it is.
Remember,
it's a spectrum.
And so just like
if you don't crush your anger,
your unrighteous anger
in your heart,
it can become murder.
In the same way
that if you don't crush
and destroy
and seek to kill,
mortify lustful intention,
reducing the image of God
in somebody down
to just their physical attractiveness,
it's going to make you
more and more selfish.
More and more selfish.
And lust never stays put.
It grows.
And it becomes something
far more.
Far more.
Right?
And so He says lust
is really serious.
So Louise Perry,
one contemporary commentator,
she points out
that in modern culture,
our modern culture,
she says,
teaches the myth
that sex is,
quote,
a leisure activity
invested with meaning
only if the participants
choose to give it meaning.
Boy.
No.
It's so full of meaning.
It's so full of power.
It can make you.
It can break you.
And if it's not used
in the right context,
then it really can destroy.
Jesus is not here to,
Jesus is not prudish.
Jesus is not,
Jesus is here
to come and heal you
and protect you.
And so that's the negative side.
Now let me turn very quickly
and just give you
the positive side.
Because I don't want
to walk away
with just thinking
I shouldn't have lust
in my heart.
I want you to walk away
thinking there's a better vision.
There's a better way.
There's a Christian vision,
a God-given reality to this
that's so good.
And here's what it is.
There's three levels to it
and I'll just list them
for you briefly.
Number one,
what the Bible teaches
is that physical union
is meant by God
to take place
in the context of total union,
legal union,
union of every kind
and that's the union
called marriage,
one flesh marriage.
And that means
that physical union
is meant to take place
in a union based
in a real love.
And what is real love?
Love, not lust.
What's the difference
in love and lust?
Love is a decision
and a commitment
to self-sacrificially
give yourself away
for other people
to the point of
great cost to yourself.
Lust is entirely inward.
It's selfish.
It doesn't cost you anything.
But in real love,
you've got to make
such a commitment
that you're willing
to give yourself away
to the point of great cost
to somebody else.
And that's why
it's meant only for marriage.
It's total commitment,
real love,
real love.
The difference in
covenantal love
versus the market economy
of lust.
Number two,
level two.
Let's go a level deeper.
What's the meaning?
What's the better vision?
That's the first level.
Level two is
God tells us
that physical union
is meant for marriage.
Why?
Because marriage
is a signpost,
analogy,
and living illustration
of the kind of love
that God has
for His people,
for us.
And so Ephesians 5
is really explicit
about this,
that marriage
from the very beginning
of human history,
including one flesh,
physical union,
has always meant
to point
to the kind of love
that God has
for His people,
total love,
committed,
legal,
never ending,
always enduring.
And so every single person
that's ever been married
in all of human history
has been meant
to be a signpost
of the gospel itself.
That's what marriage
exists for,
to point to something
far greater.
It doesn't exist for itself.
You see,
physical union
doesn't even exist
for itself.
All of it,
the total union of marriage
is meant to point
to something far greater
than itself,
and that's the love of God
that God has
to rescue human beings
and be for them forever.
Now,
that's why thirdly,
the third level,
our greatest unmet desires
in this life
can only be fulfilled by God.
So this is the most deep level
of understanding
what's going on
in our hearts,
desire.
The greatest desires we have,
even when they're pointed
at the wrong things
with lust,
those desires can only ever
be truly and finally fulfilled
by God Himself.
Now,
that's why we can say tonight
that sex,
physical union,
sexuality expressed
in marriage itself
are gifts
and they're not necessary
at the same time.
They exist to point
to something far bigger,
far greater,
and that's the longing
and desires we have
to experience the love
of God in our lives.
And that's why Christianity
came into the world
and revolutionized
the reality of,
well,
you can be married
or you can be single
and both are good.
Why?
Because sexuality expressed
in marriage
are not necessary
because they exist simply
to point to something
far greater than themselves.
And that's the love
that we can have
truly fulfilled
with God Himself
through Christ.
And so you can be married
and if you are,
you've got,
you're calling us
to illustrate
the love of the gospel
in your love
for your spouse
to the point
of great cost to yourself.
and physical union
is only appropriate
when you are giving yourself
away self-sacrificially
to somebody.
And you can be single
and you can show forth,
look,
you can be single
and you can show forth
the sufficiency
of God's love
in your life for you.
So if you're married,
you can illustrate
the gospel
in the way
you love your spouse.
If you're single,
you can illustrate
the gospel
in the way
other people can see
you fighting
for sufficiency,
seeing God
as sufficient.
God's love for you
as truly sufficient.
In both ways,
in both ways,
you get to reflect
the highest order
of what these things
exist for
to experience
the love of God
in your life.
God is the true fulfillment
of all of our unmet longings.
That's the real key.
Now that's the key
to the path of fighting
against the problem of lust.
Alright,
so let's turn to that
briefly.
Secondly,
what's the path to healing?
Tonight,
Jesus Christ says
lust is adultery
of the heart,
it's a problem of the heart,
and you can lust
after anything.
A person or a career?
Anything in this life.
And what is the path
to healing?
Let me give you
three quick things.
Number one,
when it comes
to sexual lust,
there may be
some of us tonight
who come and say,
you know,
I can see maybe
that I struggle
with lust of a different kind,
but this is an issue
that's not really my issue.
And if that's you,
then you've got to come
and see tonight
where it is
that your over desires,
your lust,
your idol-making factory,
what is it?
What is the object
of your lust,
your desire?
And that's really important
because we all need
to come tonight
and see that this is
an issue we struggle with.
And the reason
that we need to see that
is because it's very,
very critical
that we protect
this church community
and anybody
that walks through our doors.
And the way
we want to protect them
is that if you
are a person
who is deep
in the muck,
in the darkness perhaps,
of struggling
with patterns of lust
that have led
to all sorts of things
in your life,
you need to know
that the church
is a hospital
for sinners.
Yeah?
And that you can come
and be safe.
And this is not
a space of shame.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ
came to forgive us.
So you can come,
you can come.
You can know
that at St. Columba's
you will always have a place
where you can come
and if you need somebody
to talk to
and to help you fight
the path of lust,
this will be a place
you can do that.
A safe place
that you can come
and do that.
And that means that
for those of us
who don't struggle
as much
with the temptations
of sexual lust,
we've got to be willing
to see,
but boy,
do I struggle with it
in all sorts of other ways.
So that we're humble enough
to keep the church,
this space,
a place that's safe
for people to come
and wrestle and fight
against the sin patterns
that are deep and dark
down in their hearts.
It also means
that we can never be a place
where we're surprised
by sin.
Sin is never surprising.
It's sad.
It hurts.
It's never surprising.
And so we've got to be a place
where people can come
and fight against patterns
of guilt and shame
that are perpetually leading
to the same patterns
of sin in their lives.
Number two,
how do you find,
if you're that person tonight
that's there,
how do you find hope
in the midst of shame
and guilt?
Maybe for some things
you've done,
things that have happened
to you,
patterns that you're
engrossed in right
at the moment.
How do you come
and find hope?
And there's so much
to say here
and I can only say
something for two minutes.
And so what I'll say
is this,
we've got to see
that in the Old Testament
and the New Testament,
the concept of lust
is just idolatry.
It's longing for things
in this life
more than we long
for God.
And every time
we see the prophets
come and talk about idolatry,
what do they say?
They say,
we have all,
you have all Israel,
all of us,
every single human
has committed adultery.
We've chased things,
we've lusted
for things in this life
that we thought
could save us
and satisfy us
far more
than we ever wanted God.
And the thing
that we need tonight
to see is that
Jesus Christ
left His Father's home
above,
so free,
so infinite,
His grace,
to give Himself away
to those that cheated.
That's everybody.
That Jesus Christ
came for the adulterer,
that He came for us,
that He came for us
who chase after
all the wrong things
to seek self-salvation.
Jesus Christ came,
in other words,
to forgive
and to fulfill.
We mentioned this morning
the woman at the well
in John 4.
Let me come back
to her for a second.
Remember what happened
at the woman,
if you've read the Gospels
of John 4,
the woman at the well.
Jesus said,
I can give you water
to drink
by which you will
never be thirsty again.
The waters of eternal life,
and she said,
what are you talking about?
And He said,
look,
go and get your husband
and bring him back
and we can talk about it
all together.
And she said,
I don't have a husband.
And Jesus turns around
and says,
I know you've had five
and the person
that you're living with
right now
is not your husband.
Now why did Jesus do that?
Did He do it just to expose her
and bring shame into her life?
Not at all.
What did He do?
What was He saying?
He's saying,
you've been chasing
relationship
after relationship
six times now.
And none of it
has ever fulfilled you.
So sexuality expressed,
relationship after relationship,
none of it has ever
really fulfilled you.
But I can tell you today
that I can forgive you
and fulfill you.
That's what He was doing
when He was offering
the water of life.
And Jesus Christ
comes to every one of us today
and says,
I can forgive you
by the power of the cross.
I will forgive you
for everything.
And then I will turn around
and show you
what it means
to reshape your desires,
to fulfill you,
to meet the unmet longings
that you've been chasing
in root of this issue.
And so thirdly and finally,
a couple things
that you can do.
Number one,
let me put it this way.
Jesus tells us
to make a plan.
So if you're a Christian tonight
and you know,
hey, I'm forgiven,
only Christ can fulfill
the desires
that I'm fighting
and battling with here,
Jesus comes
in verse 28 to 30
and He says,
what do you got to do?
He says,
you got to gouge out your eye.
What does He mean by that?
He means you've got to have
a plan in place.
You've got to take steps.
You've got to turn from here
and do something.
And what is it
that you've got to do?
You've got to be practical.
So number one,
to be practical,
to fight this issue of lust,
you've got to first
confess your sins
to one another.
Not to everybody, no.
James,
the book of James
talks to us
about having somebody
in your life
that you can go
and talk to.
And so,
let me say it like this,
it's nearly impossible
to win and tackle
the problem of lust,
the patterns of lust
in your life
without somebody else
walking alongside you.
Nearly impossible.
And I know that
that may be
a step that you've
never taken before,
but it is nearly impossible
to fight this battle
by yourself.
So you probably need
to find somebody
that you really trust
that you can come
and walk alongside in this.
Number two,
start where you are
with deep honesty.
So tonight,
we're going to pray
in just a second.
Are you willing
to pray to God
honestly about
where you are
in this issue?
Sexual sin
that maybe needs
to be repented of?
All sorts of other things
that may be going on
in your heart right now.
It's a place for honesty.
So offer that to you
tonight in prayer.
Third,
don't be passive.
You've got to be
as active as possible
to fight this issue.
And so if you think about,
this is a metaphor,
an illustration
that I've heard
from other people,
but if you want
to be a healthy person,
if you made it
your New Year's resolution
to get really healthy,
to get fit,
you know,
you go to the gym
and it's really
just two things
you've got to do.
One is you need resistance.
Right?
So to get fit,
to grow muscle,
what do you need?
You've got to have resistance.
You've got to pick
something up
that's heavier
than a normal thing
that you pick up.
And that builds muscle.
Right?
And in the same way,
the first step
in spiritual health,
in the health of your heart,
is you've got to have
resistance in your life.
So you've actually
got to actively resist
the sin patterns,
the idolatries,
the lusts
that you are currently
chasing after.
You've got to put
things in your life
that can help you
practically to fight,
to resist.
You've got to resist.
You've got to be really
serious about resistance.
And then what's the second part
of getting fit,
getting healthy?
You've got to have
better nutrition.
Right?
And in the same way,
when it comes to
spiritual life,
better food has to go
down into your soul.
Right?
The better food
than the objects of lust.
The better food
than the imagination
is currently consuming.
And what is that
better food?
And it's this,
and I'll close with this.
The most important
thing we need
is for Jesus Christ,
God Himself,
to become
the apple of our eye.
To become
our greatest desire,
our greatest longing.
God Himself
can fulfill
all of our unmet longings.
And the more
we look at the cross
and meditate
on the cross,
the beauty of Jesus Christ
for us,
the more and more
we'll be able
in this lifetime path
of fighting
the problem of lust,
be able to see
a desire,
a better desire,
a true desire,
good food
replace the bad food
that we've been eating.
It's a lifelong path.
I'll finish with,
I love,
Alan Noble
is one contemporary writer
who's written
a brief book about this.
And he writes this
especially to men,
but of course
it can be for anybody.
But he says this,
that whenever
the temptation
of lust arises,
anytime he notices
another person
and begins
to make them
an object
and reduce
the image of God
in them,
this is what he says.
He says,
that I immediately pray,
Lord,
thank you
for the beauty
you create in others
and help me
to know in my heart
now that such beauty
is not mine
to possess.
Lord,
thank you for the beauty
that you've created
in other people
and thank you,
Lord,
help me now
to realize
that that beauty
is not for me.
It's not mine
to possess.
In other words,
how do you fight
with a better desire?
The answer
is prayer.
Whenever the temptation
arises,
straight to prayer.
Pray without ceasing.
Lift up your heart
to the Lord.
Confess in the moment
my desires are changing,
Lord.
Pray.
And it's very,
very difficult.
It's very helpful
in a season
of temptation
and lust
for whatever it may be
to replace that
with prayer.
Let us pray.
Father,
we come now
before you
needing healing
for things we've done,
for things that have
been done to us,
for patterns
in our lives,
for the misuse
of our imagination.
And Lord,
we ask tonight
that the Holy Spirit
will come and meet
with us in this prayer
and then as we sing
this final song
to bring healing
to us.
Would you,
oh God,
Holy Spirit,
be the air
lifting our wings
that we would see
that there really
is forgiveness,
that you cast
our sexual sins
as far as the east
is from the west
and there really
is a path forward,
a better desire
fulfilled
and a better object,
Jesus Christ.
So Lord Jesus,
please make us,
make yourself to us
the apple of our eye.
Make you
our greatest affection.
We pray the prayer
of St. Augustine tonight.
Give us the desires
you command of us.
And so we pray for that now
in Jesus' name.
Amen.