Proverbs chapter 9, verses 14 to 18 says this: “For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat by the highest places of the city to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way: ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here’; and as for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, ‘Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell.”
So many of God’s people have been captivated by secret sins in our day. Thankfully, many are awakening and realizing where they are. Our Tuesday night prayer meeting here at Times Square Church is filling up with people who are now crying out for freedom. They’re realizing their condition—the fact that they’ve been captivated—and finally, they’re checking out of hell’s hotel….
Excellent from Tim Challies…including a comment that pretty much says it all. I speak from too many years of experience living in this, although mine is far more convoluted than this is straight forward (so as to confuse the truth to all, especially himself), all in the name of “Jesus” while degenerating to a near vegetable state of soul. In my situation here it is more in keeping with the comment graphic posted, with extra layers of favorite sins thrown in. Lovely stuff, this. NOT easy to live in for a wife, by any means. And no wife has to live in it forever, as they have actually “divorced” us WITH their sin, choosing IT over marriage and us. So for those out there who share the pain, you are NOT alone. And never forget…vengeance is God’s and He shall have it. He is with you, and He hates having His daughters abused by these creatures, especially when they hide behind Him. Take Heart! Justice awaits. One more thing…speak the truth. Satan loves to hold the victims of this abominable behavior captive in silence and isolation….His truth sets is free, as does just plain saying what is true out loud. In remaining quiet all we do is enable sin, help them hide it, and help them victimize the church and other people. I don’t know about you, but I cannot do that any more. I will not sin in that way. And if they don’t like truth being spoken perhaps they should give up their sinning and fall at the feet of Christ. Regardless, may none of us contribute to their perishing with our silence and fear of fall out. What can man do to me? I have Jesus Christ. They mess with Him when they mess with us. I’m with Paul on that…
“A few days ago I received an email from a reader of this site, a woman who was responding to some of the articles I’ve written on the subject of pornography. She shared a poem, a bit of free verse she had written in the midst of her husband’s addiction. I wish I could say it was the only email I’ve received from such a woman. Sadly it’s not; not by a long shot. That same day I received another email from another woman looking for resources for dealing with the wife’s response to a husband’s sin (rather a gap in the available literature right now, I think).
Anyway, I thought I would share this poem. It’s a little bit graphic, but only so far as it needs to be. I think it’s particularly heartbreaking in drawing out the clear connection between pornography and violence. And it’s just a realistic look at how so many men are damaging and destroying their wives and families. It’s reality.
So here it is, “I Looked For Love in Your Eyes.”
I saved my best for you.
Other girls may have given themselves away,
But I believed in the dream.
A husband, a wife, united as one forever.
Nervous, first time, needing assurance of your love,
I looked for it in your eyes
Mere inches from mine.
But what I saw made my soul run and hide.
Gone was the tenderness I’d come to know
I saw a stranger, cold and hard
Distant, evil, revolting.
I looked for love in your eyes
And my soul wept.
Who am I that you cannot make love to me?
Why do I feel as if I’m not even here?
I don’t matter.
I’m a prop in a filthy play.
Not an object of tender devotion.
Where are you?
Years pass
But the hardness in your eyes does not.
You think I’m cold
But how can I warm to eyes that are making hate to someone else
Instead of making love to me?
I know where you are.
I’ve seen the pictures.
I know now what it takes to turn you on.
Women…people like me
Tortured, humiliated, hated, used
Discarded.
Images burned into your brain.
How could you think they would not show in your eyes?
Did you ever imagine,
The first time you picked up a dirty picture
That you were dooming all intimacy between us
Shipwrecking your marriage
Breaking the heart of a wife you wouldn’t meet for many years?
If it stopped here, I could bear it.
But you brought the evil into our home
And our little boys found it.
Six and eight years old.
I heard them laughing, I found them ogling.
Hands bound, mouth gagged.
Fisheye photo, contorting reality
Distorting the woman into exaggerated breasts.
The haunted eyes, windows of a tormented soul
Warped by the lens into the background,
Because souls don’t matter, only bodies do
To men who consume them.
Little boys
My little boys
Laughing and ogling the sexual torture
Of a woman, a woman like me.
Someone like me.
An image burned into their brains.
Will their wives’ souls have to run and hide like mine does?
When does it end?
I can tell you this. It has not ended in your soul.
It has eaten you up. It is cancer.
Do you think you can feed on a diet of hatred
And come out of your locked room to love?
You say the words, but love has no meaning in your mouth
When hatred rules in your heart.
Your cruelty has eaten up every vestige of the man
I thought I was marrying.
Did you ever dream it would so consume you
That your wife and children would live in fear of your rage?
That is what you have become
Feeding your soul on poison.
I’ve never used porn.
But it has devastated my marriage, my family, my world.
So is it worth it? Mighty high price to pay for loving one’s sin.
And if there are any men here who indulge their flesh in things God calls detestable…a useful link. There are also groups…get yourself to one and STOP IT. NOW. Before you are completely given over and God has had enough.
“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
I just recently had this conversation with a professor who’s life bears absolutely no objective indication of any true biblical repentance or salvation….A hard conversation to have to be sure, but one that must be had. We must speak until God either opens their ears and hearts to His truth and deafens them to their own self deception, or until He pulls their plug. May God draw these deceived to Himself in HIS definition of genuine repentance and surrender to Christ as LORD, and not just some form of “get out of Hell” card while continuing to live life seeking your own self centered, sinful, rebellious way.
Joel 2
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the Lord is coming, For it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color.
7 They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another; Every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down.
9 They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The Lord gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?
12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him– A grain offering and a drink offering For the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly;
16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room.
17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”
18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 “But I will remove far from you the northern army, And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, With his face toward the eastern sea And his back toward the western sea; His stench will come up, And his foul odor will rise, Because he has done monstrous things.”
21 Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, For the Lord has done marvelous things!
22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field; For the open pastures are springing up, And the tree bears its fruit; The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you– The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
Will you call out to God in repentance or continue in your obstinate rebellion? Will you continue to stand firm against what you know full well is true? Or will you humble yourself before the sovereign God of the universe?
Time is running out for the human race. Whether the great and terrible Day of the Lord comes in three months or three hundred years, we will all die eventually and stand before Him in judgment.
Examine weather you are a slave of sin and lost, or struggling against sin and saved.. {103:50 mins} and worth every minute of it. If you are in a struggle, as God defines it, think you may be in a struggle (again, as God defines it) and cannot take time to watch this, I would say you are not struggling at all. I would suggest that you have lost the battle and need genuine rebirth, starting with genuine repentance. May God grant you both. Truth is…we all struggle against some kind of sin, even if we are twice born. But if you have no struggle…that does not bode well for you, actually.No one is “delivered” from the fight. It pretty much means that you have been given over TO sin, never having been reborn. In essence what you are saying is that you have no sin.
So if you say you have no sin the truth is not in you and you are a liar.
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2Cor 13:5)
Pastor Tim talks about 10 ways that someone can examine whether they are a slave of sin and lost, or struggling against sin and saved. And be honest with yourself, if you can. You know that your heart is deceitful above all else…and always seeks the path of least resistance, and to give yourself a “pass”. 😉
“One of the most deeply harmful things pornography does, therefore, is reinforce the false lesson that sexual excitement is not about a whole-person union at all. Instead, sexual excitement becomes associated with isolation from others and a focus on self. That which is suppose to be about sharing becomes all about getting.”~ Tim Challies
Sex is for a man and a woman only. For both- not one. Pornography and the like is selfish and destroys God’s design for marriage.
The marriage bed is to be PURE. This applies to sharing videos of your sexual activities and watching people do these activities. ~ Esther Gensler ~
Do you honor your marriage bed? Do you honor God in how you honor your marriage bed? Really? Do you live by His word? Do you obey Him? Or do you obey your flesh? What is your idol? How’s your marriage? What would your wife say? A wife left deserted for slavery to your own flesh, is not a wife with a Christian husband. Nor do you have a marriage. Especially not a marriage as designed by God. Now, it doesn’t have to be porn. It can be the internet and that draw that you cannot ignore or simply not go to. Or it can be sexual in nature, and usually is….It can be masturbation with your own “mind porn”. That would be what Challies is rightly also describing. All sexual sin involves the mind in one way or the other. Where is your mind? Is it on Jesus? Is it on living in obedience to Him? Well, if you are living in relational isolation, if you are forcing your wife to live life alone because you are disengaged, isolated, and self involved to the exclusion of her or really anyone else (or spouse, as women do this as well, although not nearly as many women are involved in this sin as men are) then you are living outside of God’s commands to Christians and most pointedly to husbands. And you are soiling the marriage bed that you are suppose to keep PURE. So truthfully, your isolation objectively proves that your mind is NOT on the word, nor on Christ, and your life is one of disobedience. And as He says in regard to unbelievers…unregenerates…”those who are disobedient to the word….”(I Peter 3:1, II Peter 2:8, Ephesians 5:6…), you are headed for eternal Hell unless you humble yourself and throw yourself on His mercy for redemption. But usually, what is being referred to above is part and parcel with sexual sin of some kind. No way around that. Isolation like that only comes from sin. And that usually sexual in nature. Think you can hide or deny it? Your life shows it too clearly to be able to effectively do either. You are only fooling the fool…you. You live in constant deception. I ask you, who is the father of that? God?
If you are not a slave of Christ, you are a slave to what will kill you. You are a slave of the devil if you want the truth. Even if you don’t want the truth. You still are anyway because God’s word makes that truth extremely clear. In God’s eyes, you are an adulterer…to Him. Let alone to your spouse. And you are answerable to BOTH. One you will answer to on that great and terrible day. And no fantasy will help in Hell. He will let you eat the fruit of your own fancies. What a huge price to pay for your pride and love of self in your sin. Foolish. Especially when Christ could pay that for you if you would but surrender it all to Him in tears and repentance and truth. Only fools try to have both their sin and “Jesus”. I cannot suggest strongly enough that you humble yourself, go to your wife and God, confess your sins, all of them, embarrassing as it may be for you it is the first step to freedom and genuine humility and demonstrates your REALLY wanting to live for Christ within your marriage, and just may be your first real act of obedience to the word…and asking for forgiveness and then STOP SINNING like that….you can only do it in the power of Christ as a new creation. Anything less and you will fail every time, and you will destroy what God has given to you to protect and represent HIM in…and we all know what happens to the Destroyer, don’t we? And there is no one to blame for that but you. Men….God puts it all on YOU. His marriage, His way. Just like His offer of salvation. HIS way.
22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. 24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, 25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, 27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; 33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Proverbs 1:22-33
Living like this you are God’s enemy, not His child, and the only prayer that God will listen to is one of humble and genuine repentance and surrender to the biblical Christ as LORD. Anything less, you may as well talk to a plant.
Love gone cold in a world gone cold: Spurgeon and “A Prophetic Warning”
What word in the New Testament is used only once, in Matthew 24:12?First, the scene.
Olive Trees With Yellow Sky and Sun. Van Gogh 1889
The disciples had asked Jesus about the Temple, the times, and when His return would be. His answer is the longest discourse in the NT after the Sermon on the Mount, and the longest answer to any question the disciples asked. It comprises the entire chapters of Matthew 24 and goes on to Matthew 25. The response, given on the Mount of Olives and thus known as the Olivet Discourse, is about the Tribulation period. The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, when Jesus pours out His wrath on the unbelieving world, and punishes Israel for the final 7 years of time, three and a half of which are called the Great Tribulation. (Revelation 12:14, Daniel 7:25; Daniel 12:7).
Jesus lists the conditions that will be on earth during the time, synopsis of the lengthier descriptions of the judgments of Revelation 6-18, which parallel Matthew 24 and 25. Jesus said one of the conditions on earth will be:
And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)
The “many” here means the “majority.”
Jesus means lawlessness in the spiritual sense. The Tribulation will be a time when Jesus asked if He would even find faith on the earth, so few will real believers be, (Luke 18:8) compared to the numerous population that will revel in a false religion of the global deception that the antichrist will perpetrate. The Greek synonyms for lawlessness in this verse are disobedience and sin, the end-result of a negative influence on a person’s soul.
iniquity is especially injurious to the growth of love.
~Charles Spurgeon
It is an interesting metaphor, the love gone cold. We often think of love between a man and a woman or husband and wife, in romantic terms as fiery, hot, the spark between us, a fire is kindled. When love dims between unsaved people, the songsters sing of love cold as ashes, the fire is gone out, the heat is gone. Of course, the songsters and poets mean sexual love and romantic love, but it is a common metaphor, love is hot or cold.
The unusual word Jesus uses uniquely here in Matthew 24:12 is psuchó. Psucho is used this one and only time in the NT. Strong’s Concordance defines it:
originally, “to breathe out,” cf. J. Thayer) – properly, “to blow, refresh with cool air” (figuratively) “to breathe cool by blowing, to grow cold, ‘spiritual energy blighted or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind’, used only in Mt 24:12.
Here Jesus means the love of Christians will grow cold. Love will be cold for Him, and love will be cold for each other (the two greatest commandments).
What could not be accomplished by persecutors outside the Church and traitors inside, would be attempted by teachers of heresy—“Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” They have risen in all ages! In these modern times they have risen in clouds till the air is thick with them, as with an army of devouring locusts!
These are the men who invent new doctrines and who seem to think that the religion of Jesus Christ is something that a man may twist into any form and shape that he pleases. Alas that such teachers should have any disciples! It is doubly sad that they should be able to lead astray “many.” Yet, when it so happens, let us remember that the King said that it would be so.
Is it any wonder that where such “iniquity abounds” and such lawlessness is multiplied, “the love of many shall grow cold”? If the teachers deceive the people and give them “another gospel which is not another,” it is no marvel that there is a lack of love and zeal.
Spurgeon spoke more as to the specifics of what causes love to grow cold, as the Strong’s definition interestingly shows us from this basis, “spiritual energy blighted or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind'”. Spurgeon poetically and theologically describes just howspiritual energy is blighted-
Iniquity is naturally opposed to Grace, but it is most of all injurious to the Grace of love. If sin abounds in a Church, it is little wonder if the love of many should grow cold. Young members introduced into the Church after a short time find that those whom they looked upon as being examples are walking disorderly and using lightness of speech and of behavior. Those young people cannot be very warm in love—they are led to stumble and are scandalized. Older saints who have for years held onto their way in integrity, and by Grace have kept their garments unspotted from the world, see those around them who have come into the Church who seem to be of quite another race, who can drink of the cup of Belial and of the cup of the Lord, who seem to follow Christ and the devil, too! Seeing this evil, these godly men and women gather up their garments in holy indignation and find it difficult to feel the love of purer days.
Oh, Friends, if the frost of sin rules in a Church, every tender flower is injured and nothing flourishes! Love is a sensitive plant and if it is touched by the finger of sin, it will show it. The lilies of Love’s Paradise cannot bloom amid the smoke and dust of unholiness!
I was reading the passage this week and thinking deeply about the theological definitions and implications of love gone cold (and Revelation 3:15-16 also). I was also reading the ‘Christian” headlines and noting the devastating apostasy abounding, the acceptance of gay marriage in the church, the refusal to draw doctrinal lines between believers and unbelievers, the refusal to rebuke false teachers, the refusal even to recognize them, the seeking after pornography, the ridiculous church services that are mere entertainments for the goats…and I noted finally the weather.
I could not help but notice the rapid apostasizing of “Christians” and the rapid cooling of the world, especially Israel and America. The word psucho and its definition, “to breathe cool by blowing, to grow cold”.
Love gone cold in a world gone cold
Niagara Falls, frozen over. Photo: Lindsay Dedario/Reuters
Why indeed? And why are any named within this passage being coddled and embraced by the so-called church. That is not The CHURCH, that is Satan’s counterfeit, patting sinners on the head while they sin their way into Hell with out the biblical Christ and the word of God left in context and in application.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” I Thessalonians 4:3-8
Over the last four years or so, we’ve seen a number of young people, same age as you folks that are visiting with us tonight. A lot of people saved, God has been doing things among, you know, the 18, 30 year old’s, across the county, it seems. It’s been no different here in San Antonio. We have seen the Lord working. One of the things that has become apparent to me, that some of these new converts, some of these new Christians, they’re all of sudden of coming into a measure of spiritual warfare that I think when they were first saved, they never anticipated. And I’ve heard veteran Christians talk about the fact that they came into the Kingdom and they just thought it was going to be eternal fillings of the Spirit, and joy, and flowery beds of ease. The Christian life is a battle, and the text, the springboard text that we’ve been dealing with, for probably the last two months or so, comes out of 1 Peter 2, verse 11. I want to hit that text just as we get started this evening. ;
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles (reading from the ESV), to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” There are passion of flesh that wage war, that means that they are passions that would seek to wage war and destroy your soul. We have dealt with pride, we have dealt worldliness, and tonight we are going to start, probably three messages, this being the first on sexual sin. and tonight we are going to start, probably three messages, this being the first on sexual sin. Now I’ll tell you this, the very nature of the subject that I want to start dealing with tonight, I don’t know the background of the visitors, I know what you folks are a custom to hearing that are part of the church. I don’t have any intention tonight to try to awe you with provocative language, but I want to tell you this is that I want to be dead honest with you, and to do that I don’t know, I don’t know what churches you go to, I don’t what kind of pastors you have, but sexual sin is the real deal. Sexual immorality, sexual temptation, it is huge in our day and it’s not a subject that we want to stay quiet about. It wages war, in fact among young people, this one takes people down. These passions wage war against your soul and they mean to undue you. I mean, I know I’m personifying them, I making them out as enemy that has arm, and legs, and thinks. That’s the way the Bible says, that’s the way the Bible speaks about them, that’s the way Peter speaking about it is actually a passion. I realize the passions that are within us but they seek to destroy, they are against your soul. They do battle against your soul, something that wars against your soul means to destroy your soul. These are soul-destroying passions and if they get you, you die! You die in your sin, you go to hell, that is just real as that Scripture.
We’re going to look at number of these. So I want to speak to you honestly tonight, not graphically but honestly. Our series comes from this text in 1 Peter 2:11. The verses I want to deal with more specifically tonight comes from 1 Thessalonians 4, so if you would turn there. I just want these verses to speak to us. ; “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” Now you can see it, the words that I want to deal with tonight are found right there at the beginning in verse 5, “not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” The passion of lust, Peter say’s, passions of the flesh wage war against us. Here is one of these passions of the flesh; the passion of lust. Now just these verses, 3 through 8. I want you to help me define what the passion of the lust… What is the passion of lust, based on these verses?
Tell me, as we seek to establish a definition, you tell me what is true of passion, the passion of lust based on these verses. Lust, what’s true of sexual lust? The passion of lust, based on… what’s Paul say here? What’s he telling the Thessalonians? What’s true of it? If we’re seeking a definition? Uncontrolled, there’s a thing. See, he sets this passion of lust, which he accuses the gentiles of being guilty of, over against control. So it’s losing control in a sexual way. Basically, control has the idea of keeping myself in bounds, keeping myself constrained, keeping myself from over-stepping. Or he actually uses the word transgress. To transgress means to step over, there’s a boundary there, control keeps me within the boundary, I lose control, I go out of it. What else does it tell us? That you don’t know God. You don’t know God. Let me tell you, this “world gone crazy after sex.” This is one of the key characteristics of the lost world. This is an evidence that you don’t know God. Now listen if that surprises you, it should not, if you know your Bibles. Paul says in 1 Corinthians in Chapter 6, and verse 9, he’s say’s “don’t be deceived.” And the first thing he deals with is fornicators, adulterers, sexual immoral, homosexuals, impure, they don’t not inherent the kingdom of heaven. You know why he says “don’t be deceived,” we got spiritual people running over the place that think, “We’ll I go to church, I own a Bible.” All that time there Bible they own is telling them, if you’re involved in sexual immorality, you will not inherent the Kingdom of Heaven. What else does it tell us that is true about the passion of lust? It’s being out of control. It disregards God. It’s a disregard of God. Can I tell you what the real issue is?
Those who are given to the passion of lust have no regard for God. That’s basically it. What is else is something that is true there? The Lord will avenge. Anything else? Defraud a brother. Definitely a sin against others. Let me tell you two words that nobody has thrown out yet. Holiness and honor and the passion of lust is contrary to both.
Honor when a young man or a young woman, doesn’t matter if they are young or older but I’ll tell you this, when sexual passions are given over to, it is a complete dishonoring, it’s no regard, as we’ve already heard, there’s no regard for God, but there is total dishonor. Listen ladies, you know what a man’s saying to you who wants to have sex with you but does not want to marry you? He’s saying “I want to use your own body for my own gratification, but I don’t want you. I don’t want all of you. I don’t want a commitment with you. I just want to gratify myself with you. It’s not really you I want.” And you can’t get around that reality. A man who will not make a covenant commitment to you, but wants pleasure with you, he doesn’t love you, he dishonors you. His, his motives are totally impure and dishonorable. He doesn’t really want you. He will tell you he does. But then ladies, you dishonor yourselves, because you’re willing to give him your body for the sake of that pleasure in the hopes of satisfying your own emotional desires, your own desire to be loved, your own desire for affection, and you just cheapen that whole thing. And the thing is he’ll tell you anything that you, that he thinks you want to hear to get you to where you’re going to be willing to go that way, it’s totally dishonorable. It’s totally the opposite of holiness.
Holiness is a people set apart. It is God setting apart a people. Jesus setting apart a people. A people of His own who are dedicated to good and to good works, to purity, to being set apart for Him. So it’s dishonorable, it is a disregard for God. I’ll tell you, this is right where it’s at. People who give way to their sexual lusts, they totally disregard God. And you know, don’t think, boy there is such a prevalent thinking, “Well the Lord knows I love her.” Or, ”The Lord knows we’re in love.” “The Lord knows we mean to get married.” Have you never read Ephesians chapter 5 or Colossians chapter 3? It says for these things the wrath of God is coming. This is not a thing He’s pleased with. He designed marriage to be a picture of His Son and His Son’s relationship to the church and when you defile it, it is such a thing that brings wrath from Him that He will destroy you. that’s why Paul is saying He is an avenger.
What does avenger mean? it means He’s gonna bring punishment He does not take kindly to it. He does not say, “oh well I understand ladies” “that your seeking affection” or “I understand men that you guys need an outlet”. that not what He says. its a lack of control, its a disregard for God, it is a dishonoring… of our bodies brethren its a serious thing. it is a serious thing and I’ll tell you this, It is not just the act. Now hear me very well, and listen I want you all to hear me.
Because what I’m about to say, some of you are no doubt gonna misunderstand and misinterpret but I wanna show you that what I’m saying come straight from the bible. Jesus said it. So I don’t want anyone going out here today saying, “well I don’t believe what that guy believes… and I don’t know why we came to this study” look I’m not here to set any agenda of my own I want you to hear what the Lord says the Lord says in Matthew Chapter 5 and if you have your bibles, you should look at this this is serious stuff Matthew Chapter 5 verse 28 you see brethren when I say that this is a disregard for God, and Paul says people who are given to these passions like this, know not God He’s not just saying well you see the Gentiles no not God and this characterizes their life and so when do this, your just acting like them. He’s saying if you do this and your given to this, you are one of them that’s why He is saying God is an avenger He’s coming for ya this is serious and Jesus said, its not only the act, now listen to this. Matthew 5:28-“I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart “Ok so what, everybody does that” “I mean I talk to all these professing Christians around me and I know they struggle with it” “and so we all struggle with it”. “After all ‘Oh wretched man that I am’ and ‘the things I wanna do I don’t do and I just can’t find myself doing them’” and the evil don’t wanna do I find myself doing”. and I look around and I see all these folks around me and they struggle with the same thing so certainly it must be ok with all of us”. so certainly it must be ok with all of us”. have you never read Jesus said, few there be that find it the broad way is the religious way just because you may sit in a church where you have a bunch of other people, that fail and fall to the same thing doesn’t make you safe. Your only safe when your in a category where Jesus says your safe. and Jesus does not say if that’s true in your life your safe. listen, numbers don’t bring safety truth brings safety what God says in His word is where you wanna stand you’ll easily go to hell with the crowd if you think numbers bring safety Jesus said, many are gonna say to me in that day Lord, Lord and He’s gonna say I never knew you So don’t trust in the numbers when Jesus Himself says many THE CROWDS FOLKS in that day are going to find out Jesus never knew them Listen, let me tell you this
Where you are with sexual passions has literally everything to say about whether your Christianity is true or not. Jesus says you’ve committed adultery in your heart if you’ve only had lustful thoughts lustful intents. Now listen to what He says right after He’s talking about a man using his eyes to look at a women and lust. And then He says immediately “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.” Let me tell you what Jesus is saying, and you can’t twist these words to mean anything else. If you are involved in sexual sin, internet pornography, illicit sexual immorality Jesus says you cut it off or you will go to hell, this is life and death You say, wait WAIT A SECOND, what is this? I thought we were saved by faith? Oh you better believe we are, but if your faith is such a faith that does no produce The kind of hand cutting off, eye gouging out, foot cutting off Christianity then it is NOT a faith that will save you. No way, no how That’s what Jesus is saying in all this. Listen to this… If your right eye caused you to sin then tear it out and throw it away It is better for you if you lose one of your members than for your whole body be thrown in hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. And of coarse He’s speaking illustratively here He’s saying that thing in your life that causes you to stumble You need to get rid of it, forsake it, repent of it, cut it off no matter how radical it is You need to get rid of it, and if your faith is not capable of that It is not a faith that is going to save you Listen…have you never read, James says the demons believe but there not saved Faith that does not produce and all out battle against sexual immorality is a faith that will not save you and I have that on the authority of the word of God
I haven’t come here tonight to set forth my own opinions in this matter, This is exactly what Jesus says Jesus says heaven and hell are at stake Listen, if you’ve got the kind of faith that allows you to go on looking at Internet pornography, being involved in masturbation, and all sorts of sexually illicit things If we’ve got any young men, young ladies here living in sexual immorality and you’re claiming to be a Christian, you need to go back to the beginning You need to start all over, you need to repent from the beginning you need to turn from it, you need to cry out to Christ to save you from your wickedness, save you from your sin, save you Heaven and hell are at stake Isn’t that exactly what Peter’s telling us These things wage war against the soul, Heaven and hell are at stake And unless your faith is able to take you through this battle A battle saving faith, is sin killing faith Saving faith, is lust killing faith Saving faith is waring faith, make no mistake about it. Lets not mince words, this is what Scripture says These things wage war against your soul. In other words, if you cave to them, if you give place to them, If you don’t fight, gouge out, cut off, do battle, all out battle; Not in your own power. If by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. That comes right out of Romans 8:13. Life and death, you will live, if by the spirit you put these to death. I want to be honest with you, I don’t want there to be anybody here,
Any young people here, any older people here; You’re involved, in sexual immorality, and it may just be up here Your mind is full of perversity, you think sexually illicit, profane thoughts, unholy thoughts, Your eyes are where they ought not to be all the time, You have struggles and you can’t overcome, Listen, Paul said this, Romans 6:14 He said “Sin shall not have dominion over you”. If you’re under grace, not under the law, if you’ve truly been saved by grace Sin will no longer have dominion. Let me tell you this, Sinners, I mean wicked ones full of all sorts of sexual immorality, all sorts of perversity They can come to Christ, and find full and abundant pardon Its is called Justification, the sinner comes with a horrible guilty record
And God washes that record clean by faith But let me tell you something, if your idea about being saved stops there You’ve got it wrong, because where ever God comes in and justifies a guilty sinner Pardons them by the blood of Christ and the work of atonement that Christ did on that cross. He will also break the dominion of sin, this is the greatest outward manifestation to whether you’ve truly been justified. Here’s the thing, I can’t see your spiritual record, I don’t know if it’s clean. You don’t see mine, I don’t know if you’re forgiven. It’s not stamped on my forehead or on yours. See this is what the Bible says, DON’T BE DECEIVED. MANY ARE DECEIVED, what are they deceived about? You got people all over the place, “Well I believe, I said the sinners prayer”. “I walked the aisle, I went to the alter, I had that experience at camp one time”. “I did this, I did that, I read my Bible, I went to church”. And the Bible the whole time is saying, If your life is not radically transformed Where the power of sin is broken, DON’T BE DECEIVED. The reality of a clean record is not there if there is not indication of a transformed heart.
Unless your approach to sex has at some point become radically changed Unless your uncleanness and impurity at some point, I mean practically speaking Has not radically been altered, and the power of sin broken, don’t be deceived Look the legal reckoning has not taken place Unless practically your life has been transformed by the power of God So evident in Scripture Listen to this, Roman 8:13 says this”If you live according to the flesh, you will die” You say, what does it mean to live according the flesh? Well in Galatians 5:19 Paul says “The works of the flesh are evident” Whats the first one in the list? Sexual immorality What’s the second one? Impurity. Third one, sensuality I mean the first three hit right at the heart of this And he says this, “If you live according to that, you will die” But somebody is going to come along and say, “Yeah but I was saved by faith”. “What are you saying now if I fall into this sexual sin I lose my salvation?” No that’s not what I am saying at all, I’m saying your salvation was never real in the beginning. I’m saying it wasn’t true, I’m saying whatever you thought it was no biblical salvation. Listen many people come to Jesus on judgment day and say
“Lord, Lord, didn’t we do this, didn’t we do that?” Then He says “I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness” or “workers of iniquity” You see if the power of lawlessness and the power of iniquity was never broken in your life, it’s the greatest testimony that Jesus never knew you If you live according to the flesh, YOU WILL DIE But if by the Spirit, Oh not in your own strength, But in the power of the cross, the power of the Spirit of God unleashed by faith in Christ. If by that supernatural transforming, regenerating, bringing from death to life kind of power, If by that Power you put these things to death; Listen, I’m not saying this, I’m not saying the first day you truly believe
That there is never a struggle, never a temptation and never a battle. Listen when it says they wage ware against you, it means is From the first day to the last on this earth, you are in all out battle against it. You are gouging, you are killing, you are waging war, you are putting to death by the power of the Spirit. It’s all out battle: Look, some people misunderstand and they say “Oh so when you become a Christian, basically sin no longer has dominion…” “In other words, it all just stops”. No, when it says it doesn’t have dominion, It means it won’t dominate you, It doesn’t mean it won’t wage war against you. And you will have to fight for everything your worth, in the power of the Spirit. No, it will be all out, will we fall? There will be days you fall, but it’s war. And you will gain ground, you may come upon the battle field and you may fall, But you’re going to take the field, you’re going to move forward, you’re going to advance. That sin cannot dominate you, you will move forward. There’s no such thing as saving faith, true faith, God given faith, real get me to heaven faith That does not wage all out battle against the passion of lust. Listen, In the power of the cross there is power to overcome.
There is; It is not a hopeless battle. But if you’re in chains, you’ve just never been able to break away, No matter what has happened you just find yourself a slave, Slaves of sin, are not slaves of Christ. Call upon the Lord while he may be found. There is power there. There is sin killing power to be cured.
Folks what I’m saying is this, This battle is not optional. There are a lot of folks today that basically think this, “Well hey, All I’ve got to do is believe and I’m in” “As far as my sanctification, well that’s kinda optional” “You know the more good I do, the more reward I’ll get” “But after all, I was saved by faith” “So yeah I’m still sleeping with my boyfriend but…” “YOU CAN’T JUDGE ME, judge not lest ye be judged” Oh no, Jesus can judge you, and God is the avenger And He will avenge against you And when he says that those that are given to the passions of lust know not God, When Jesus says, it’s better you gouge out an eye than you land yourself in hell They can say that, they are in the place to judge that, and that’s exactly what they say You don’t want to play games here, you don’t want to play any games. This battle is not optional, Listen… Mark it down, there is no faith that saves from God’s wrath If it does not save you from the power of sexual immorality. Mark it down. The sexually immoral know not God. Listen, Listen to me very carefully here, because this is the heart of the matter.
The sexually immoral know not God, that’s what Paul says there in 1 Thessalonians 4, did he not? Did you guys see that? They know not God. You say, “Well I know about God”. No that’s not what it says. It doesn’t say that they don’t know about God. It says they don’t know God, there is a big difference. Jesus said in Matthew 7, when they said Lord, Lord, LORD, LORD He said “I never knew you”. Jesus knew all about them because he calls them, lawless. He knew all about them, he didn’t know them. You say, “What’s the difference?” Oh to know about somebody is to know facts To know in the biblical sense, Adam knew Eve and she conceived, very intimate. When Jesus knows somebody, remember Ephesians 5; When He knows somebody, that’s His bride, that’s His church, that’s His body. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church He knows the church intimately. They know not God, it means they have no intimacy. They disregard Him, they dishonor Him, they don’t know Him. Those of you who know your Bibles.
In Matthew 13:44 you know what you have a picture of there? A man who’s walking through a field and he finds a treasure so valuable That he goes and sells all that he has that he might have that treasure. Can I tell you what this knowing is all about It’s when a man comes to know, that he has discovered a treasure. That is worth more than anything else, and he doesn’t disregard it, he knows He’s convinced, I want this more than anything else. See when a guy comes along and he’s willing to dishonor a young lady. Disregard God, he has never found… It is one of the greatest indications hes never found Christ to be more valuable than anything else. You know what happens to a person who finds Christ and knows… I mean he sees and knows what hes found. For real, he will go and sell all, including his sexual immorality He will say I want that more than I want that girl. I want that more than sexual pleasure I want that Listen, there is a big difference between the passion of lust, and sexual desire.
Sexual desire channeled into the marriage bed is honorable. We’re talking about that which is immoral. And a man will set aside all that disregards Christ, When he finds Christ to be more beautiful. Listen, this is the heart of the matter, When a man or a women, when they find Christ, When they see in Him glory, and beauty When they say yes, I want that more than anything else. And I don’t want to do anything that grieves Him. I don’t want anything that separates Yes I have sexual desire, but my desire for Him is more. And so, I’m going to stay controlled, Lord help me to stay controlled. I don’t want to dishonor You, and I don’t want to do anything that breaks my fellowship with You. I have found you to be all together lovely And my heart wants You, it yearns for You, it calls to You I want to go hard after God, I want to find You, I want to meet with You. I want to live my life for You, I want, I want, You are my all. And I am willing to sell all to have you. When it says, they know not God, It means they have never come there If your Christianity has not made you fall in love with Jesus Christ,
You don’t know Him, and He doesn’t know You. That doesn’t mean things are hopeless. That just means, what you have is not the real things Awe, when a man finds Christ to be the treasure of all treasures. He will not hold onto anything else Listen, when somebody falls in love with Christ, The fear of hell is a very real fear and Jesus appeals to it. It’s better for you to amputate, than to wind up in hell. But when you come to know Christ, and know Him intimately and to fall in love with Him. The greatest grief is not the terror of hell, the greatest grief becomes offending the one you love. Falling out of fellowship with Christ, having Him withdrawal, having Him not smiling on you anymore. Offending Him, awe brethren, how many of us. Once God saved us, we stumbled into some sexual immorality, And the greatest grief was not “Oh no I’m going to go to hell” The tears ran because we knew we offended the Lord. After everything hes done for us on that cross, After everything He has endured Son of God was acquainted with grief and affliction on my behalf and here I went and did this. We hang our head in sorrow because of His great love for us. And the fact that we would count His love as such a cheap thing and do this Oh if you know Christ, I mean if you deeply know Christ, You know God, you love God, you have found the glory of God just shines in the face of Jesus Christ And you’ve once looked at that and said “Yes, yes that’s what I want”.
It’s not a light matter, sitting down in-front of a computer and masturbate in front of pornography. It’s hard for a man to do that, when he’s thinking, How can I go into the secret place tonight, and commune with Christ. He won’t be there after I’ve done this. It doesn’t become a light matter. I’m telling you this is the real deal. And if the faith doesn’t produce this, it’s not worth having.
It isn’t, It’s all out battle, all out battle, because of the One we love. All out battle, because we no longer disregard God, we have regard for Him. We have regard for His laws, we have regard for the way He’s made us. We have regard for sex, it’s good, within the confines of the marriage bed. And outside of that its defiled. Total perversion of how God designed it to be. This our first visit to this subject, and I think this is heart of the matter.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace increases? Totally not! How shall we who died to Sin still live in it? -Romans 6: 1-2
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?Romans 6: 15-16
God makes it perfectly clear, right? You cannot serve two masters. Continuing in sin makes Satan your master. Submitting to God’s word of truth, in Christ alone, makes Christ your Master. You cannot live both ways, that is not saved, that is the double mindedness of the spiritually dead. God says clearly…choose this day who you will serve. One master leads to death and eternal Hell, one Master leads to life and eternal life with God. Seems like a no brainer. Perfect for those who’s brains have been sucked out by their ongoing relationship with sin (and Satan), for you don’t need a brain to be saved….you only need a conscience….and to listen to God’s conviction within it. Unless you have given that to the devil as well…” BIHP
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