Good morning! Today we continue our series
entitled Facing Your Enemy. This
series has explored the Biblical view of Christians as soldiers, and I think
there are two main ways this view of ourselves is helpful. First, it reminds us
that we are not just here on Earth to enjoy its pleasures; we are here for a
purpose, to be Christ’s hands and feet and mouth as we expand the Kingdom through
telling people the good news of the Gospel. As soldiers, we are taking back
ground for God; as each additional person comes to their own personal saving
faith in Christ, Satan’s world gets a little smaller. We are involved in a
rescue operation, freeing the captives, replacing darkness with light, despair
with security and hope. We are on a glorious mission as we reveal to the world
the true glory of Christ.
Second, although we are on the winning
side, we are under attack, by multiple enemies. From I Peter 5:8, Your enemy the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And from I John 2:16, For everything in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father
but from the world. Satan and the world and even our own flesh seek to
conspire against us, to make us abandon the field of battle, to make us useless
and completely ineffective as soldiers. This week, our focus is on this second
aspect of being a soldier, especially as it pertains to the area of lust. This
is a difficult topic to teach on, and it is a difficult topic to hear, because
it is so personal, so private. But it is a terribly important topic to discuss
because it is a stumbling block for so many believers.
Last week, one of the things we talked
about was the Ten Commandments. And right in there, in Exodus 20:14, it says, You shall not commit adultery. And
then, in verse 17, in the long verse about not coveting, it says, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And
so we see that not only is the acting out of lust a sin, even the thinking
about it is sin. The Jews at the time of Jesus didn’t seem to get this, so
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount made it quite plain:
“You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But
I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.” – Matt. 5:27-28
Although these passages are technically
addressed to men, there is no question in my mind that they apply to everyone.
Lust is universally sin. Acting on lust is universally sin.
I think we all know that lust is one of the
greatest “besetting sins” of our modern American culture. The signs are
everywhere. But just to see how far we have fallen, I think it is helpful to do
a bit of a thought experiment. From what you have seen on TV or read or
otherwise learned, imagine life in the 1950s and early 1960s. TV shows included
The Andy Griffith Show and Leave it to Beaver; compare these to a typical
modern show – the difference is extreme. Think about the clothing styles of the
1950s and early 1960s and compare this to what is considered normal, average in
a college campus. The sight of women wearing short shorts is so commonplace
today that we don’t even think about it, but in the 1950s, dressing like that
out in public somewhere other than at a beach or swimming pool probably would
have gotten you arrested. I’m not pronouncing judgment on all modern clothing
fashions; I’m just trying to get you to see how dramatically our culture has
changed.
Another data point is divorce rates, which
were in the low 20% range in the earlier era and about 50% now. That’s a
dramatic change! The divorce rate has been relatively stable over the past
several decades, but the number of unmarried couples who live together has been
rising steadily. (By the way, if anyone ever tells you that they want to live
together to improve the chances that they have a good marriage, tell them the
real numbers: If you don’t live together first, your chances of divorcing in
the first 5 years of marriage is 20%; if you do live together first, it is 50%!
That is just in 5 years.)
Yet another data point would be the
percentage of children born to married vs. unmarried parents. In the 1950s and
early 1960s the numbers born to married parents was at or above 95%; as of 2010
it was 59%. Again, this is a dramatic change, from 1 in 20 born to unmarried
parents to 2 in 5. In some minority populations it is now as high as 7 in 10.
And then there is abortion, which was
nearly nonexistent in the 1950s. Often one sees the numbers of abortions
quoted, but given the nature of our discussion I think it makes more sense to
turn it around and ask how many women have abortions. I was pretty shocked by
these numbers. According to the Guttmacher Institute (far from a Christian
organization), assuming the current abortion rates continue (and they are
stable at present), one in 10 women in America will have an abortion by age 20,
one in 4 by age 30, and 3 in 10 by age 45.
One final data point I would give is
pornography. Internet pornography didn’t exist in the 1950s and early 1960s,
since the Internet didn’t exist. Pornography definitely existed in the 1950s
and early 1960s, but it was harder to come by; a person had to go to a sleazy
store to get it, or perhaps they could get it in the mail. But today all it
takes is about one second on the Internet. According to the Covenant Eyes
Company, which offers Internet filtering, one recent study on a college campus
found that 93% of boys and 63% of girls had been exposed to pornography before
the age of 18. The study also found that about 65% of young adult men (college
age) watched pornography at least once a week, and a total of about 82% watched
it at least once a month. Among young adult women the percentages were 18% at
least once a week and 48% at least once a month.
The degree to which our culture has changed
in 50 or so years is bewildering and, for me, heartbreaking. It makes me want
to grieve the moral state of America
But
let’s move from the “macro” discussion to the “micro.” How are you doing in the
area of lust? How is your thought life? I realize this is too personal to tell
me, but nothing is too personal to tell God. And so I want to stop this message
for a minute while you simply tell God honestly how you are doing. Don’t
sugar-coat it; He already knows anyway. But I think He would really like to
hear it from you. So for just a little bit, tell the Lord how you are doing.
And if maybe lust is not your battle but something else is, tell Him about that
instead. If you are just feeling kind of distant from Him, your heart seems
kind of cold, tell Him that. Whatever it is, tell Him. […]
Now,
I want us to look at Romans 8 today, because I think it directly applies to our
battles against lust (as well as other temptations). As
we go through this, you will see that I have underlined a few phrases that have
stood out to me this week. I encourage you to write these down, or if other
phrases grab you, to write those. The Holy Spirit may have something in
particular for you that I don’t discuss. Anyway, we will start at verse 1.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life
has set you free from the law of sin and death. For
what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did
by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:1-4
As
you can see, the first thing I have underlined is “no condemnation.” As a young
believer, I struggled with sin in multiple areas including lust. And I felt
miserable. At times I questioned whether I was saved. At times I felt certain
that God was very angry with me, that if I didn’t get my act together soon He
would blot me out, give me a fatal disease, or have me get hit by a car (or
maybe the classic, hit by lightning). How do those feelings square with this
passage?
They
don’t. Not at all! We who are Christians, who by faith have believed in Christ
and asked Christ come into our lives and lead us, are forever changed. We have
been set free forever from the “law of sin and death,” that is, we are set free
from the penalty of sin. That penalty has forever been paid for all sins we
commit, past, present, and future. That law, the law of sin and death, is no
longer operational in our lives. The price was impossibly high, but God paid
that price by sending Jesus in our place to take the penalty that we deserve.
The penalty has been meted out; it will not be meted out again.
And
so when we sin, God does not condemn us! There is no condemnation. He is
grieved; the Holy Spirit is grieved by our sin. How serious is this? Well, to
me it is an absolutely terrible thought that I could grieve my Savior! For
those of you married or with children, to have deeply disappointed your spouse
or your child, to the point that they grieve over what you have done, is
unspeakably awful. And yet, when we willfully sin, we grieve the One who loves
us infinitely more than any spouse or child or any other person on this Earth.
How horrible! Our response, when we sin, where true repentance begins, is not
with us confessing and fearing God’s “spanking.” It is that we weep over how we
have deeply hurt the One who loves us so much that He died for us.
Our
relationship with God is real, not some figment of our imagination. God really
loves you. You! And when we push Him
away, when we think less of Him than He is, when we self-destruct rather than
coming to Him in our desperation, He is grieved. You are never going to really
grow in combating sin in your life until you start to grasp just how much He personally and individually loves you.
Those who live
according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but
those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the
Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed
by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed
by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do
so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot
please God. – Romans 8:5-8
I
like that word “governed” used in the NIV, even though that exact word is not
in the original Greek, which might more literally be translated the mind
“of the flesh” and the mind “of the
Spirit.” The reason I like that word “governed” is because I picture governors. Some
governors are good, and some are terrible. The Spirit is a person, it is God,
one of the Trinity; there can be no better governor. The flesh, in contrast, is
just plain old me. Quite literally it is the “old” me, and the “old” me makes
an absolutely horrible governor! My point here is that self-effort is only
going to produce death; effort empowered by the Spirit is the only thing that
will produce life and peace.
Is
it possible to have peace? Battling the sin in us and the temptations around
us, can we really have peace? Yes!
Peace with God. Peace within ourselves. In John 14:27, Jesus said, “Peace I
leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” In John 16:33, Jesus said, “These
things I have told you so that in Me you may have peace.” Yes, we are at war.
But God intends for there to be times of peace, if we allow Him through the
Spirit to “govern” us. The more we in fact do this, let ourselves be led by the
Spirit, the more peace we will have.
You, however, are not
in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the
Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,
they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is
subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of
righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you. –
Romans 8:9-11
“Even though” are such encouraging words! They acknowledge
that Christians do battle sin and that we don’t always win. Even though this is
the case, the Spirit is giving continually life because of the righteousness of
Christ. This is something we do not do alone, but empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, brothers
and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live
according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by
the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For
those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you
live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your
adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” – Romans 8:12-15
And
here we come to the heart of the matter, the “how to.” It is through the
intimacy of our relationship with God. We are sons, not slaves. God loves us as
sons. Christ is God’s Son. So God loves us as He loves Christ! That is amazing!
And
so, as sons, we call out to Him, with the intimacy of the English word “Daddy,”
for that is what Abba means. We ask our Daddy to help us. We don’t live in fear
of what He will do if we fail; we come to Him as our loving Father to help us.
And what are we to do? Empowered by the Spirit, we kill the misdeeds of the body. Think about this: How do you get rid
of weeds? You pull them or you spray some Roundup on them; either way, you kill them. You don’t try to plant a
garden in the midst of weeds, trimming the weeds but not killing them; they
have to go! How do you get rid of termites or ants or other pests? You kill
them. You don’t move to another house; this is your home, you are staying; they
need to die. And in the same way, we kill the misdeeds of the body.
Killing
is a violent act. I think of what Jesus said right after talking about not
committing adultery in the Sermon on the Mount:
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out
and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for
your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to
lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. – Matt.
5:29-30
Jesus
is not saying we need to mutilate ourselves, but He is saying we need to be
serious, deadly serious about our sin areas. If you are an alcoholic, you
cannot reasonably expect to continue a job as a bartender and not get into
trouble. You need to find a new job ASAP. If you are struggling with
pornography, you cannot expect that simply praying but still allowing yourself
to be alone with an un-filtered computer is likely to work. That’s not killing
anything. I don’t think you need to throw out your computer, but you do need to
install some good blocking software, software you cannot disable yourself,
perhaps that not only blocks sites but also sends a list of all the websites
you visit each day to an accountability partner.
Understand
that killing causes pain in what remains, and it leaves a hole. You must
replace that hole with God, or another sinful habit will likely just take its
place. Take your faith to new levels; get more involved in Bible studies or
with Christian friends, get more involved in sharing the gospel, lengthen your
quiet times, do all of the above, but fill that hole with God.
Also
understand that when it comes to lust, you need to stop it (to kill it) right
away. James says,
… each
person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives
birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. – James
1:14b-15
Don’t let
your evil desires live, and you won’t “conceive.” Peter says,
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to
abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. – I Peter 2:11
Abstain
from even the desires of sin. In
Romans, Paul says this:
…clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do
not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. – Romans 13:14b
Don’t
even think about it! Stop things even before
they can begin. If you are in a dating relationship, the question isn’t
“how far you can go,” but how do you make absolutely sure that you can’t possibly “go” anywhere until you
are married. If you are married, then in friendships and working relationships
with members of the opposite sex, you don’t say “it’s OK, just a little
flirting, nothing will happen,” if it is a friendship you either take steps to
restore it to an absolutely platonic level or you end it; if it is a working
relationship, you either take steps to restore it to an absolutely professional
level or you pray and look for another job.
I hope these ideas and tips help you in your battles against lust and other sins. As I said, the starting point is that we have a good, genuine, loving relationship with God. We are about to spend time remembering the Lord in communion. Jesus told us, shortly before He went to the cross to die for our sins, to take the bread and the cup in remembrance of Him, and so, that is what we will do, each individually, whenever you are ready. But I really encourage you, to be very open and honest to God in prayer before you take the bread and cup. Think about how your sin grieves Him, and call Him Abba and speak to Him from the depths of your heart.
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