"Whoever Lusts" - Part II

Encouragement to Persevere in the Fight Against Lust

Well, this morning we pick up simply where we left off last week, and as I said, as we work through and finish out this passage here this morning, we want to be perhaps even more.

Practical.

There's aspects, of course, of practical application that are perhaps not appropriate for a context or a setting like this morning, maybe perhaps more among men or among women, and maybe even then not among the whole group, but perhaps one-on-one or a smaller group of men.

And I'll speak to that a little bit as we move forward, but let me just begin with perhaps a word of encouragement. As so often in the Christian life, it's when you really begin to address patterns of sin.

In your life that it gets a lot harder before it gets easier.

And I'm not condoning that you watch this as a means of entertainment, but if you've seen professional fights, the hits really do matter if there's no knockout, right? The hits really do matter. If there's a flurry of punches that are landing, all of those are noted by the judges, and at the end, whoever had the most punches landed wins, right?

But you could be under an all-out whirlwind of punches. It could be a hundred to three as far as shots taken, shots landed. And as long as you persevere and in due time land that knockout blow, even if that's the only swing that you took during the fight, you've won.

If you land the knockout blow, even if you had to persevere under a flurry of abuse and torment, if you land out the knockout blow, then you've won.

You have your victory.

And I would just encourage you, take all of the teaching, all of the things that we're looking at even this morning as encouragement and exhortation to persevere under the flurry,.

Under the assault of the evil one.

Perhaps this week for you has been more of a revelation that the chains are a lot harder and they're wrapped around a lot tighter than you thought. You didn't realize you were in this deep, and this week you actually really tried to walk in the purity that befits your calling, and you found it very hard to do so.

Perhaps you fell this week in ways that you're ashamed to even be here this morning. Well, let me encourage you. The lion that 1 Peter speaks of does not let the prey go readily, does not let the prey.

Go easily.

Some of you have pet dogs, right? The toy is simply by their face until you try to take it away. Then what happens? They pull back. They bite down. I hope I'm projecting clearly enough. It's when you try to pull something away that there's the pull, there's the growl, there's.

The assault.

Do you see? And that's how it is in dealing with sins, especially sins of this nature. So don't be discouraged if this week, this past week has revealed your weakness for what it is, has shown you perhaps a bondage that you weren't willing to admit.

You were living in self-denial. Take this as the Lord's opportunity for your life, that you would take these things to heart, maybe take others into counsel so that you can land that knockout blow. But in the meantime, persevere under the assault, persevere under the flurry of temptation, brothers.

Don't let this time pass by idly, right? The Lord has us here in this part of his word for a reason. So take these things to heart. Allow your conscience to be convicted as the Lord enables, as the Lord leads.

And then don't allow the sun to set without dealing rightly with the things that he's laid upon you, okay? So that's my encouragement as we begin. Let me just read for us again from Matthew 5, beginning in verse 27.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, cast it from you.

It's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

Lust as Coveting and the Call to Be Holy

So as we said, just a review from last week, Jesus is quoting the seventh commandment. You shall not commit adultery. But he's quoting it in a way that ties the tenth commandment. You shall not covet.

If any man looks to lust, right, that verb is the same verb, to covet. In other words, to strongly desire, to strongly pursue. And so we have the seventh commandment and the tenth commandment held together.

To lust is to covet. It's to have this intense desire, this intense ambition. It's to let your mind wander. It's to allow your imagination to fantasize. It's allow your eyes to wander as we sped to the men.

It's to behold the things that are not lawful for you to behold.

For the women, it's to be beheld in ways that it's not lawful to be beheld.

And so we've been really addressing this issue of desire, coveting. How do we deal with desire? How do we understand Jesus' call to purity? And as we said, you can't begin to understand what's wrong about desire until you understand what is right about desire.

The problem is not God's design. His design is good. He declared it very good. It's not the goodness of a good desire that is the problem. It's a desire that does not flow from his design. The problem is when God-given, God-oriented desire becomes disordered, dysfunctional.

And this dysfunction, this disorder, begins to rule in our mind. It begins to stain our imagination. It begins to stain our affections. And therefore, it becomes an obstacle to our will. This is how you land in that Romans 7 predicament.

The things that I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I'm doing. It's because of the power, the influence of a mind that is defiled and its effect upon the affections and that upon the will.

So last week, we talked about these things. We talked about the call to the beholder.

In other words, the call to men. The call to the beheld. The call to women.

And we want to press down a little bit further into practical details this morning. Simply, again, two parts. Now, first, the call to be holy.

And then lastly, the call to behold. The call to be holy and the call to behold.

So I hope you'll hold together last week with this morning. The call to the beholder and the call to the beheld.

In other words, the call to men and women.

That's still front and center. But we want to frame it in terms of this calling to be holy. That's what Jesus is after in this Sermon on the Mount. One of the major themes in the Sermon on the Mount is righteousness.

How are we to understand what it means to be a part of this kingdom? To have our lives bound to this king? What does it mean to enter into a kingdom of righteousness? And then at the same time, this call to behold will lead us, I hope, in a practical way to behold.

There's a great need to frame everything in terms of beholding. And so let's begin with the call to behold. For most young men in the world today, the idea of victory over lust is unimaginable. I say for most young men in the world, for most young men in this room.

Let's be clear.

For most of you, especially younger men sitting in this room today, the thought that you could have victory over lust is unimaginable. And it tends to go one of two ways. For the rare few, they'll simply own it.

I'm a man.

This is what men are like.

This is what I'm like.

This is what men do.

This is what I do.

I know it's not really appropriate. I know it's not really fitting.

But boys will be boys.

Men will be men. This is just how it is. And in fact, I'm not as far gone as most of the men that I know. Certainly not like my neighbors and my coworkers, or even like my friend circle. I'm not like most of the people in my life.

I'm actually doing fairly well, all considered. And they try to pad, as it were, the conviction. They try to find a way to evade the shame. In other words, they begin to own it and become increasingly unapologetic.

This is just how things are.

Someday things will change. Someday my circumstances will change. Maybe they bit down on the illusion that a lust problem can be completely solved by just marriage. If you've got a lust problem, if you've got a pornography problem, marriage won't solve that.

Marriage won't solve that.

So they bite down on the lie, and then they become disillusioned. Now their next big hope is, well, when I get older, when eventually my testosterone levels begin to wane, when everything else in my life begins to, in fact, when I just kind of get ahead and establish myself, and my life's just a little more ordered, or maybe just when I'm heading toward those sunset years, then I really won't struggle.

And I would just say, again, it's an illusion. It's this idea you're now beginning to own your sin rather than repent of your sin. You're becoming apologetic. In other words, defending your sin. And in that brash sort of arrogance, as Scripture would say, to the defiled, all things are defiled.

Your life has become so unleavened that instead of sweeping out the leaven through repentance and confession, you simply get comfortable with the fact that there's going to be a lot of leaven in your life.

And as long as you don't have as much leaven as other homes around you, you're okay.

That's what you tell yourself. To the defiled, all things are defiled. Well, that's what the rare few will do.

Most men will live in hypocrisy. Few will begin to own it, but most men will live in hypocrisy. They'll never truly own it. They'll simply have a split life. And it's a bondage to live under the addiction of pornography.

It's a bondage to live under the chains of lust. But let me tell you, it's also a bondage to live as a hypocrite. And hypocrites don't last long. You can only straddle so far for so long. Eventually, you become disenchanted, disillusioned.

You'll leave one or the other. Now, the encouragement here is we have the good news of the Gospel. And I would say this to both the one who's simply owning their sin and their defilement becoming leavened, and to the one who's living in abject hypocrisy.

In either way, they're not dealing with their sin rightly. But the encouragement here is we have the good news of the Gospel. And you don't have the good news until you're ready to take on and face the bad news.

I was saying several weeks ago to a man, most of the world spends their whole life avoiding looking at themselves in the mirror. And Scripture is a mirror. Scripture wants to show you who you are accurately.

The world will lie to you. You'll lie to yourself. Scripture will tell you as it really is.

Scripture will show you as you really are.

It's what makes Jesus' words here so jarring, so challenging. You wish that they were just hyperbole, exaggeration, some sort of weird metaphor. He doesn't really mean what he's saying. He really means what he's saying.

Because Scripture is a mirror that's telling you the way things really are. And so the Gospel is good news for those who are willing to face the bad news. The point of looking in the mirror is to see all that is not presentable, all that is not right.

Scripture is a mirror then that not only reveals what's wrong but points to what is right. It shows you the remedy. The good news of the Gospel then is bound to this call of holiness. The good news of the Gospel says be holy as God himself is holy.

The Gospel is not less than that. That's what the Gospel is ultimately calling us toward. The Gospel is good news because the way toward that fulfillment, the way toward that holiness, it is through the veil, that is through the body of the Savior that's crucified and now is risen and stands ever to intercede for his people who close them with his own righteousness, sanctifies them by his own spirit.

That's the good news of the Gospel. But that good news never trickles down into the minds, hearts, and wills of those that are living in abject hypocrisy.

Never will.

The good news isn't really good news to a hypocrite. The good news isn't really good news to someone who's simply owning their sin without conviction, without repentance. Because the good news does not leave us as we are.

It finds us as we are. It never leaves us as we are. The good news is that our lives will be transformed by degrees unto the glory of our Savior who saved us.

That's the good news.

You won't always be this way.

Praise God.

You won't always struggle in this way.

Praise God. That's the good news.

If you don't live hypocritically. So the good news is bound to the call to be holy. And at the same time, the call to be holy is bound to the good news of the Gospel. I want to emphasize it in that way.

The call to be holy does not leave us to ourselves. And I have to say this as we sort of enter into the call of holiness. The call to holiness does not leave you to yourself. It doesn't say, now go staring down at your feet and figure out how you can fix yourself.

That's not good news.

That's not the call to holiness.

The call to holiness is bound inseparably to the Holy One. Who, late in flesh appearing, was crucified, buried, and rose again. The one whose blood is the double cure, as the hymn puts it, cleanses us not only from the guilt of sin, but from the power of sin.

And there's many Christians that live in the former.

And have no conception of the latter.

That is a problem, frankly. Can it be that the blood cleanses from guilt and is powerless to transform the life? It cannot be. It cannot be. This is God's will for you.

Your sanctification.

Jesus didn't die to make it possible.

Jesus died to make it happen.

This is God's will for you. Your sanctification. And so we receive the cutting message of kingdom holiness. But we receive it with the balm of the gospel. The balm and the hope of living in victory over our sins.

Because this is the will of God, secured not by us, but secured by our Savior,.

Who we trust, who we follow, who we confess our sins to,.

Who we pray and beg for more of His presence, more of His power in our lives. That's why living in victory is possible. Because of Him who is faithful. Even when we are faithless. Now there's four things I want to focus on in terms of this call to holiness.

And really, I think sometimes you'll read certain books in battling lust or battling sexual addiction or sexual immorality and they often have little strategies. And I'm always gritting my teeth. I'm not quite sure what to do with strategies.

Sometimes we make way too much of a strategy. We think, you know, this little mnemonic device.

That worked wonders for me, it's going to work wonders for everyone. If you just remember these four letters, your life will be transformed.

And then you're putting your hope in some sort of strategy, some neat little formula that you've devised from Scripture, rather than in a dynamic life of walking with the Lord by His Spirit. So I don't put too much stock in strategies, but also I don't want to make too little out of them.

Sometimes having something simple that you can repeat and rehearse is very helpful, practically. That might be very unique to someone. I wouldn't say one size fits all. But when I think about things that are influential in my own fight against immorality, against letting my mind or my eyes wander, I really boil it down to a few central elements.

And that's simply what I'm going to put before you. I don't promise it to be a formula. I don't say that it's some strategy. Simply certain elements, I think, of biblical exhortation that has been effective in my life and I trust it may be effective in yours.

And that really comes down to four actions, four activities, okay? I'll tell you them all up front.

Something named, you name.

Know, something to know. Remember, and then cling. Those four actions. Name, know, remember, cling, okay? Name, know, remember, cling. Beginning at the start. Name, and here I mean naming the sin. Name the sin.

For the same reason that men won't look in the mirror, we also become, as it were, unable to speak, unable to name, unable to think. That's what sin does to us. Begins to paralyze your ability to understand and discern things.

In the way that Proverbs speaks, you become simple, as simple as a beast of the field. That's what sin does to you. It degrades your humanity. It hollows out your ability to reason. It carves away all of your discernment, your powers of industry.

You become simple, animalistic. You become reactionary, totally under the spell of any passing scent in the wind. And what scripture calls us to do first and foremost is to name the sin.

Just name what you're dealing with. Understand it rightly.

Name the sin. The first thing to grasp, even from Matthew 5, is that Jesus wants us to connect lust with covetousness.

Very important.

And as I said, there's other terms he could have used to speak of lust, or desire to fornicate, or commit adultery, or anything in that network of words. But he chose the verb for coveting,.

Which is neutral.

It can be positive or negative. And here, of course, he's bringing the 10th commandment.

Into the 7th.

He wants us to see that lust is like covetousness. And as we see, in scripture, sexual immorality is often placed alongside covetousness. That where you have immorality described, covetousness is right next to it, right near it.

Several passages are like this.

But we can take another step forward. Another step is needed. Scripture also gives us a definition for covetousness. If lust is covetousness, then what is covetousness?

Well, scripture tells us.

Colossians 3, verse 5. Put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. So naming the sin means it's not enough to say, I'm struggling with lust.

It's not enough to say, I'm struggling with lust, which is covetousness.

You actually have to say,.

I'm struggling with lust, which is covetousness, which is idolatry. I'm struggling with idolatry. I've got a worship issue in my life. I'm setting up idols for my imagination. I'm causing my emotions and my passions to be stirred by idols in my life.

I've got a worship malfunction. Do you see? Name the sin. Lust is carnal covetousness.

That's what idolatry is.

Idolatry takes many shapes and forms. It's certainly more than that, but it's not less than that. Half the battle is naming the sin. That's half of it. It's not just that struggle that all men struggle with.

It's idolatry.

It's idolatry. When you connect lust to idolatry, you begin to expose the core issue,.

Which is false worship.

Beholding and being enamored with and flooding your affections towards something that is not yours.

Something that you were not meant to behold.

Or be moved by in this way. Your heart, your mind is made pure and it's supposed to be moved by the one that God gives to you. That is received then in thankfulness to God himself.

You're moved ultimately by him,.

And therefore you're moved along in his good design. You can enjoy the gift as it's been given. Enjoy it in the way it's been given. Enjoy it for the reason it's been given to you. You have to name the sin.

We need to name fornication, name uncleanness, name carnal covetousness for what it is, setting up an idol to worship. Having done so, once you name the sin, you then fight tooth and nail to make sure that that sin is not named among you.

Name the sin and fight tooth and nail to make sure that sin is not named among you. Ephesians 3. Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness.

Again, see how that's all tied together?

Uncleanness, fornication, covetousness. Let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. And so Paul says you have to name it rightly and then make sure it's not named among you. Know what's fitting for saints.

So the first point is name the sin. Now having done that, secondly, so we go from name to know. Name to know. And here's the point about knowing. I'll simply put it this way, and I hope I can prove the point.

If sin makes you simple, animalistic, if I could risk sounding abrasive, sin makes you stupid. Sin makes you a fool. Sin dumbs you down. Sin makes you less than human. And so scripture often says, know what you know.

Know what you know.

That's the second point.

Know what you know. Temptation makes us unwilling to properly identify a sin, so we're not able to name it. And then there's sort of this amnesia that comes with temptation. We sort of forget the things that we know.

We willfully chase away any thought that would counter the temptation. Any thought that would situate us in a right way of understanding. We simply forget the things that we've already received. We willfully repress the knowledge.

That we already possess.

And scripture says simply, know what you know. Retain it.

Put it into practice. You already know this.

Let me illustrate this for you. 1 Corinthians 6. We read this at the beginning of last week. 1 Corinthians 6 beginning in verse 13. Paul is talking about sexual morality and he's framing it in terms of this call to holiness in the lives of the Corinthians.

Because of Christ's calling, because of the holiness that befits you now, you must not live in these ways. Look at how Paul frames this. Now the body is not for sexual morality,.

But for the Lord,.

And the Lord for the body. That's a magnificent statement. If you can wrap your mind around that. I wish we could have a whole sermon just on that verse.

The body is not for morality, but for the Lord,.

And the Lord is for the body.

Beautiful statement.

The body for the Lord, the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Now listen to Paul.

Do you not know? It's not the only time he's going to say that. Do you not know? That your bodies are members of Christ?

It's a rhetorical question.

The implied answer is, of course you know this.

How did you forget this?

Why are you struggling? You already know the answer to this. Do you not know? That your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not.

Do you not know?

Again.

That he who is joined to a harlot is one with her? For the two says,.

He says,.

Shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin a man does.

Is outside the body.

But when he commits sexual immorality,.

He sins against his own body.

Or do you not know? That your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you're not your own.

And you were bought at a price,.

Therefore honor God with your body. Do you see that constant refrain?

He's saying,.

Christian,.

You already know this. You know this. What has so overtaken you that you forgot everything you know? Forgot the very things I taught you.

Forgot the things that you received from me.

You know this. A parent chastens their child. You know better. You know you weren't supposed to touch that. You know you weren't supposed to do that. You know better, right? It was a sinful desire. It was giving into temptation that brought about this spiritual forgetfulness.

1 Thessalonians 4, we see the same example. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus, you should abound more and more.

Just as you received from us.

How you ought to walk.

In other words, we've translated the way of faith, the way of walking after the Lord.

You received from us how you ought to walk.

And ought to please God. Now listen,.

For you know what commandments we gave you.

You already know this, he's saying. Brethren, you already have it. You already know it. You're not waiting for some new thing that you don't know. This is the will of God,.

Your sanctification,.

That you should abstain from sexual morality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel.

You see?

Paul says you already know it.

You should know.

How long have you been a Christian?

You've been longer than the Thessalonians were Christians. Brothers, you ought to know how to possess your own vessel. You ought to know. That's the exhortation. Know what you know. Don't forget what you know willfully.

Don't ignore what you know willfully. Put into practice what you know. Know what you know.

Know what you've received.

Know what you hear others talking about. Sometimes your conscience has to be informed when it's been stained, when it's been maligned for so long.

You need to resensitize it.

And a lot of that comes through confession.

Maybe you need to receive again.

How you ought to walk.

From a brother that's walking the walk who's maybe further and farther than you are.

In your current struggle.

You come to that brother.

And you say,.

Can you help me receive again.

The things I ought to know.

Because I'm not possessing my vessel lately. And I can say that any brother in this room would do their utmost to help you in that endeavor. And then just to nail the point home, the very next line, right?

You ought to know how to possess your own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust.

Like the Gentiles who don't know gum.

You see, it all comes back to this matter of who you know,.

Who you worship, covetousness.

He's saying that you ought to know.

Because of who you know. You ought to know how to walk.

Because of who you know,.

Who you're walking toward. You ought to know how to possess your vessel.

Because of who you know,.

Who you say is possessing you.

The Gentiles don't know God,.

But you know God. The Gentiles don't know how to possess their bodies, but you know how to possess your body. You're a Christian.

So knowing what you know.

Is also tied to knowing who you know. That's going to come at the very end of the last point, but let me just sort of brief aside here. Isn't that what Joseph does.

When Potiphar's wife tries to lay hold of him?

He says, how could I do this great thing against my God,.

This great evil against my God?

He knows how he ought to walk. He knows how to possess his body because of who he knows. It's my great God.

He names it rightly,.

This great evil. He's living before the face of God,.

Quorum down,.

Before my God,.

Even while you have half my clothes off my back. I'm still able to, you know,.

Under that flurry of punches.

To go back to the beginning,.

I can still land that knockout blow to lust. I can run away. Now Joseph, of course, speaks of that as a singular act. How can I do this great thing, this great evil against my God? But we know from Genesis that that wasn't a one-time event.

Potiphar's wife put on her perfume and batted her lashes daily at him.

We read,.

It was as she spoke to Joseph day by day that he would not heed her to lie with her.

Or be with her.

Every day she came calling for Joseph. Every day she was like the harlot of Proverbs 7. She sat not by the house, but in the house calling for him. Why don't you come? Come take your coat off. Come sit down for a while.

Come lay down. And like the wise son in Proverbs, he resisted day by day by day. And even when she was done calling and now she was clutching, he still ran away. It was because of who he knew.

Who he knew, he knew the Lord.

And therefore he knew how to possess his body. He knew why his sin struggles were the way they were. He understood that temptation was going to cloud his judgment in certain ways. He resisted and took action in the best ways he thought possible.

But then there were times where all the ways that he would try to avoid without showing disrespect to his master's wife kind of fell through and he just had to run and face the consequences later. Joseph is a picture of a man who's willing to gouge out his eye and cut off his arm to enter the kingdom.