The Problem of Lust

New Testament from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

We're going to read verses 27 to 30

as we continue to work through the Sermon on the Mount.

So Jesus says this,

You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent

has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away,

for it is better that you lose one of your members

than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away,

for it is better that you lose one of your members

than your whole body goes into hell.

This is God's holy word.

So Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 27,

he quotes from the seventh commandment in the Old Testament

and says, you shall not commit adultery.

And then in verse 27, he then says,

and let me tell you that if you've looked at another person with lust in your heart,

you've committed adultery in your heart.

Now, we tonight are going to talk about adultery and lust

and some of the struggles we faced in terms of human sexuality.

So if you're a visitor, let me just say welcome to you.

Glad to have you tonight.

Glad you came along.

It's a perfect night for you to be here.

It's God's word.

It's always good.

Why are we doing this tonight?

Why are we talking about this?

Let me give you a few reasons while it's really,

really important for us to think about this issue.

Number one, we are working our way through the Sermon on the Mount,

and this is the passage we're on.

So that's the first important reason,

is that we're working our way through the Bible,

and so we want to talk about anything the Bible talks about.

And then secondly, most people in our culture,

in a modern and post-Christian city like the city of Edinburgh,

think that Christianity is all about rules

and think that the biggest rule that Christians really want to push

is rules surrounding sexual ethics.

And so people think if you're going to be a Christian,

it's about being a certain type of person.

Rules, rules, rules.

And the biggest thing and the most important thing

is to be committed to marriage

and to never having any sexual expression outside of marriage,

and that's what it means to be a Christian.

And I think a lot of people in our city

probably think about Christianity in that way.

And sometimes, as one writer puts it,

even in the church,

we can struggle with frail devotion to rules

driven by duty, not desire.

And so it's very possible that even as Christians,

if you come tonight as a Christian,

you can look at something like the Seventh Commandment

or Jesus saying,

and let me take that to the next level

and say that if you struggle with lust,

any time we struggle with lust,

we've committed adultery in our heart,

and we can come and think,

I don't know why that is,

but I just know that I have to obey it.

That's what it means to be a Christian,

just to follow the rules,

rules, rules, rules.

And we've got to come and see

that what the Sermon on the Mount is doing

is it's offering something very different than rules.

It's offering a life of joy and peace

that walks in the grain of reality

the way God has made it.

So the Sermon on the Mount

and this issue of human sexuality

is teaching us what it means

to actually walk along the grain lines,

the wood lines,

of the way God actually made the world.

And that's why when we come to this issue,

when we come to so many issues,

if we fail to walk along the grain

as God has made it,

if you break the rules

in the way God has ordered them,

the biggest issue is that

they break you.

You'll be broken by them.

And so the Sermon on the Mount

comes to first offer you

a life of joy and peace,

but it does so also to protect.

Not to say Christianity is all about rules.

No, instead to offer you protection

and help and healing.

That's what it's here for.

The third reason is that most of us,

most people and everybody in our city

comes to this topic with scars in their lives.

And that's because sexuality,

human sexuality expressed,

has incredible power.

It's got power to fulfill

in the right context,

and it has power to break you,

to destroy your life

when engaged in the wrong context.

And so in the modern world,

people will say things like,

sex is existentially meaningless.

It's part of the marketplace.

It's meaningless unless somebody chooses

to give it meaning.

And boy, because of that mentality,

that sexuality expressed is meaningless,

existentially meaningless,

so many people have come from that mentality

with deep, deep scars in their lives.

And probably many of us are not immune to that.

I think there's probably an unprecedented level

of pain all over our city

based on the free expression,

quote unquote, of sexuality

because of the modern mentality

that sex is just a marketplace.

And that, let me put it like this,

one writer says it like this,

in the sexual revolution,

the sexual revolution has not left behind

any winners, only losers.

And when we think about human sexuality

expressed in utter options and freedom,

the writers have shown us,

the sociologists, the commentators,

the philosophers,

that all we leave behind

is a wake of pain and losers.

And so it's really important

that we come tonight

because some of us will come

with guilt and shame

in our lives that we've buried

for things that we've done

or things that have happened to us

in the past.

Many of us will come tonight

with regret

and deep hurt

over sexuality expressed

in our past.

Some of us will come

with a lack of fulfillment

and loneliness

in relationships.

We'll come maybe,

maybe,

maybe tonight

with a feeling

that you have nowhere to go,

nobody to talk to,

no help

to get you out of deep,

dark patterns

that are really damaging

when it comes to sexuality.

And so we come tonight

with deep need

and we read,

that's all we read

in our call to worship,

Luke 5, 31.

Jesus comes tonight

and says,

I came for those,

I didn't come for the people

that are well,

I came for the people

that are sick,

I came for the people

that know they need healing,

I came as the great physician

so Jesus comes tonight

in the Sermon on the Mount

to help us

and to protect us

and to heal us

in these issues.

And so let's think

about two things together.

Number one,

what is wrong with lust?

Why is lust wrong?

And then number two,

the path to healing.

All right,

so first,

why is lust wrong?

Jesus,

we saw here,

is reflecting

on the seventh commandment.

So he says in verse 27,

you have heard

that it was said,

you shall not commit adultery.

That's a quote

from the Ten Commandments.

And the word adultery

is well known,

it technically means

being unfaithful

to one's spouse,

cheating on a spouse

in the context of marriage.

And in the first century,

just like in the Old Testament,

we see that that word

has a whole family of words

that broaden out the list

and so that there's

a whole spectrum

of the ways

we can commit adultery.

So in the Westminster

larger catechism,

the confession

that we subscribe to

here at St. Columbus,

it talks about a whole list.

What does adultery mean?

It's much more than that.

Paul uses another word,

fornication,

the Greek word porneia,

from which we get

the word pornography.

And it talks about

sexual sin as a spectrum

that exists

in all sorts of degrees,

right?

And of course,

we all know that.

But in verse 28,

Jesus says,

there's a foundation,

a base,

a line

where sexuality expressed

becomes sinful.

And what is it?

And he tells us

in verse 28,

he says,

I say to you

with utter authority

that anyone

that has looked

at another person

would lust in their heart,

in their heart

and in their imagination

has already committed adultery.

In the very deep recesses

of the soul,

you've already committed adultery.

Now that means

that Jesus does something

that no one expected

in the first century.

He broadens the concept

of the line

of where sexual sin begins.

All the way down

to the soul,

all the way down

to the heart,

all the way down

to the imagination,

to lust itself.

And look,

in our modern world,

everybody agrees.

Everybody tends still

to agree

in the marketplace

of human sexuality

that is this 21st century

that adultery is bad.

Adultery in the most basic sense.

There's not that many people

that would argue for it,

right?

Because nobody wants

to be cheated on.

And so in the modern world,

the ethic is

do what you want

as long as you don't

harm anybody,

as long as there's consent.

And so we all feel

that if I'm cheated on,

I've been harmed.

And so people generally

will say,

yeah,

don't cheat on people.

Adultery is bad.

Don't break your promises.

But when it comes

to what Jesus does

in verse 28,

and he says,

but that's not the line.

Lust is the line.

Boy,

people come

in our modern world

and they say,

lust,

what is that doing

to anybody?

That's me.

That's just my imagination

and my heart.

That doesn't bother anybody.

It doesn't harm anybody.

And so how in the world

can that be a problem?

Can that be an issue for us?

And so what Jesus is doing

is here something

that was shocking,

that was broadening

what was very narrow

in the first century

just like today.

And here's what he does

in Matthew 5 here.

He says,

when he says,

you've heard it said,

you shall not commit adultery,

he's not just quoting

the Ten Commandments,

the Seventh Commandment.

He's also quoting

how the Ten Commandments

were interpreted

in the first century.

So when he says,

you've heard it said,

he's talking about

the way that had been taught

by the scribes

and the Pharisees

in that time.

And the way that they taught

about this issue of adultery

is very,

it's actually incredibly similar

to the way we think about it

in our modern city.

And so what did they say?

Well, they took it

very, very, very literally.

You shall not commit adultery.

And that means

the boundaries of sexual sin

are quite narrow.

To commit adultery

means that you actually

are married

and you cheat,

you commit adultery

relative to having a spouse.

And so the Pharisees

and the scribes said,

the way is narrow

to commit this sin.

You know,

you have to actually be married

and you have to actually

commit the act

of committing adultery

against your spouse.

And that means

that what they did

was they left

a really broad space

for freedom,

that they could live their lives

in other ways

that they wanted to live them.

Lust was not really

on the mind

as an issue.

And in the same way

when you come to the modern world,

what do modern people say?

Most ways,

modern people say

most ways

of expressing sexuality

is absolutely fine.

Most ways.

Adultery, yeah,

that's bad.

That's a narrow path

that you don't want to go down.

But every other way

is pretty much fine

as long as you're not

doing anybody any harm

and as long as you have consent.

And you see,

just like the Pharisees

and scribes

in the first century

and modern people today,

everybody is trying

to make the way,

the way of actually

doing wrong

really narrow

in the path of freedom,

options,

really, really broad.

And Jesus comes

and does the exact opposite.

He says,

actually,

where does the line begin?

Sometimes when I meet

with people

who are in a dating relationship

or thinking about marriage,

they want to know

when it comes to sexual expression,

where's the line?

And Jesus gives it to us.

He says,

lust is the line.

Desires in the heart,

that's where it begins.

That's where the sin problem

actually starts.

Lust is the line.

And so we've got to think

for a second about lust.

It's all about the heart,

he says.

And what is this thing

that he's talking about?

Now,

last week,

Lewis helped us think

about the fact that

murder,

physical murder,

the act of violence

begins with murder

in the heart,

as Jesus put it,

unjust anger.

And what did he say?

He said,

you can have unjust anger

in your heart

and that unjust anger,

unrepented of,

becomes disdain.

And disdain,

unrepented of,

becomes hatred.

And hatred,

unrepented of,

can become violence.

So he talked about

anger on a spectrum,

all the way from

anger in the heart

to murder itself.

And in the same way,

he comes and says

that sexual sin

is a spectrum.

And lust,

imagination,

lustful intent

in the heart,

is on the same line

as the act of adultery

itself.

The very same thing.

And so what is this

wrongdoing,

lust in the heart

that he's talking about?

Okay,

this word for lust

in Greek

is a word that simply

means desire.

Desire.

And if it's translated

with its full intent,

its meaning,

it means over-desire.

So you can lust,

you can have over-desire

for anything.

It's not just expressed

in sexuality.

You can long for things

in wrong ways

and have the object

of your desire

be anything at all.

Right,

so Jesus is saying here

lust is simply

when you want

good things in life

in really bad ways.

That your affections,

your longings,

your imagination

about those things

is disordered.

You can take anything

in life and over-want it,

want it too much.

And how do you know

when that's happened?

It's when you want

something more

than you want God himself.

Lust happens

anytime you desire

anything in this life

more than you long

for God himself.

And so we are all,

we are all prone.

Calvin,

what did he say?

John Calvin,

he said that the human heart

is an idol-making factory,

that we're all cranking out

things that we lust after,

idols that we lust after

all the time.

And that's exactly

what Jesus is talking

about here,

but he's talking about it

in the frame particularly

of sexual lust,

the lustful intent

in the realm of sexuality.

And it's important

to say then that

if lust,

the word lust,

over-desire,

means misplaced desires

or good things,

good things in this life

that we mistreat

by desiring them

in the wrong ways.

Jesus is not in any way

being prudish

about sex and sexuality,

not at all.

And boy,

if you read through the Bible,

you find that out,

that the Bible

is not prudish

about these things,

not at all.

Read the Song of Songs

sometime

and you'll find out

what the Bible says

about these things.

No, not at all.

He's talking about

these things misplaced,

disordered,

disorganized

from the grain of reality

the way things should be.

So what is wrong with lust?

What is wrong

with desiring someone

with lustful intent?

And let me give you

just two deep reasons why.

And we could talk about this

for a long time,

but I can't do that,

so I'm just going to give you two.

And the first is this.

Lust is wrong

because lust

is fundamentally selfish.

It's greedy.

Lust is

an attempt

in the imagination

and in the heart

to satisfy

an appetite

with selfish motivation.

So C.S. Lewis

talks about this

and he says,

the real damage of lust,

the real damage

of pornography,

the real damage

of sexual expression

outside of marriage

in any context

is that it makes us

more and more selfish,

he writes,

because we were not made

for sexual action,

physical union

without total union.

And so,

we're made

for emotional union,

spiritual union,

legal union

in marriage,

and only then

physical union.

And when you don't have

a relationship

of total union,

emotional union,

where you've been called

to give yourself away

to somebody emotionally,

legal union,

where you've been called

to make vows to somebody

and say,

no matter what happens,

as bad as it gets,

I'll stick with you

and it'll be for you,

then you've actually

committed selfishness

when you lust

after them

for just one type

of union,

physical union.

All you're doing

is trying to attempt

self-satisfaction

without the costliness

of the deep commitment

that's required

in giving yourself away

to somebody totally,

totally in total union.

That's the first reason.

When you read

the old writers

in the Christian tradition

on what makes lust

so damaging,

you know what the first thing

they say is every time?

Because it makes people selfish.

More and more selfish,

more and more self-centered

by seeking satisfaction

through your own means,

through your own means,

without having to give yourself

away to anybody

in any other way.

The second reason

that you see quite often

throughout Christian history,

church history on this,

of what's wrong with this

is it treats other people

as less than whole people.

So every single one of us

has been made

in the image of God

and we've got emotions

and reason

and personality

and habits

and preferences

and loves

and all of us

have ways of speaking

and accents

and places we're from

and stories

and narratives

and that's the whole

of who we are.

So every single one of us

is in God's image.

We are a unity

in diversity.

We are one person

made up of so many parts.

But when we lust

after people sexually,

lustful intent

and the imagination

and the heart,

what is happening

is that we're reducing

the holistic image of God

down to nothing

but physical attractiveness.

We've taken a person

who was made

in the image of God

and we've said

all you really are

is your physicality.

The measure of your beauty.

That's it.

Physical attractiveness

is all that you are.

Now it's really interesting

that when you think

about the Ten Commandments

and the Second Commandment,

God says,

do not make any images of me.

No graven images.

And when you get

to the prophets,

the prophets say to Israel

when they make graven images,

what do the prophets say?

They say,

you have committed adultery

against God.

You've cheated on Him.

You've tried to reduce God

down to an image.

You've tried to objectify Him

in an object itself

and so you've committed

adultery against Him.

And likewise,

in a lesser way

but a real way,

in the Bible,

it says when you objectify

a person

who is the image of God

and reduce them

to nothing but their physicality,

their physical attractiveness,

you have done what?

Committed adultery

in the heart.

So in the same way

that you can commit adultery

against God

by whittling Him down

to some little idol

that you worship,

in the same way

you can whittle a person

down to nothing

but their physical attractiveness

and commit the very same sin

towards that person.

Adultery of the heart

we learn here.

And so Jesus says,

now He takes this,

He turns this up to 11

because in verses 28 to 30,

what does He say?

He says,

in 29 to 30,

I should say,

if your right eye

causes you to sin,

you tear it out.

If your right hand

causes you to sin,

rip it off.

Right?

What is He doing there?

He's being hyperbolic,

definitely,

but He's being hyperbolic

to make a point.

He's saying that lust is serious

because lust never stays

where it is.

Remember,

it's a spectrum.

And so just like

if you don't crush your anger,

your unrighteous anger

in your heart,

it can become murder.

In the same way

that if you don't crush

and destroy

and seek to kill,

mortify lustful intention,

reducing the image of God

in somebody down

to just their physical attractiveness,

it's going to make you

more and more selfish.

More and more selfish.

And lust never stays put.

It grows.

And it becomes something

far more.

Far more.

Right?

And so He says lust

is really serious.

So Louise Perry,

one contemporary commentator,

she points out

that in modern culture,

our modern culture,

she says,

teaches the myth

that sex is,

quote,

a leisure activity

invested with meaning

only if the participants

choose to give it meaning.

Boy.

No.

It's so full of meaning.

It's so full of power.

It can make you.

It can break you.

And if it's not used

in the right context,

then it really can destroy.

Jesus is not here to,

Jesus is not prudish.

Jesus is not,

Jesus is here

to come and heal you

and protect you.

And so that's the negative side.

Now let me turn very quickly

and just give you

the positive side.

Because I don't want

to walk away

with just thinking

I shouldn't have lust

in my heart.

I want you to walk away

thinking there's a better vision.

There's a better way.

There's a Christian vision,

a God-given reality to this

that's so good.

And here's what it is.

There's three levels to it

and I'll just list them

for you briefly.

Number one,

what the Bible teaches

is that physical union

is meant by God

to take place

in the context of total union,

legal union,

union of every kind

and that's the union

called marriage,

one flesh marriage.

And that means

that physical union

is meant to take place

in a union based

in a real love.

And what is real love?

Love, not lust.

What's the difference

in love and lust?

Love is a decision

and a commitment

to self-sacrificially

give yourself away

for other people

to the point of

great cost to yourself.

Lust is entirely inward.

It's selfish.

It doesn't cost you anything.

But in real love,

you've got to make

such a commitment

that you're willing

to give yourself away

to the point of great cost

to somebody else.

And that's why

it's meant only for marriage.

It's total commitment,

real love,

real love.

The difference in

covenantal love

versus the market economy

of lust.

Number two,

level two.

Let's go a level deeper.

What's the meaning?

What's the better vision?

That's the first level.

Level two is

God tells us

that physical union

is meant for marriage.

Why?

Because marriage

is a signpost,

analogy,

and living illustration

of the kind of love

that God has

for His people,

for us.

And so Ephesians 5

is really explicit

about this,

that marriage

from the very beginning

of human history,

including one flesh,

physical union,

has always meant

to point

to the kind of love

that God has

for His people,

total love,

committed,

legal,

never ending,

always enduring.

And so every single person

that's ever been married

in all of human history

has been meant

to be a signpost

of the gospel itself.

That's what marriage

exists for,

to point to something

far greater.

It doesn't exist for itself.

You see,

physical union

doesn't even exist

for itself.

All of it,

the total union of marriage

is meant to point

to something far greater

than itself,

and that's the love of God

that God has

to rescue human beings

and be for them forever.

Now,

that's why thirdly,

the third level,

our greatest unmet desires

in this life

can only be fulfilled by God.

So this is the most deep level

of understanding

what's going on

in our hearts,

desire.

The greatest desires we have,

even when they're pointed

at the wrong things

with lust,

those desires can only ever

be truly and finally fulfilled

by God Himself.

Now,

that's why we can say tonight

that sex,

physical union,

sexuality expressed

in marriage itself

are gifts

and they're not necessary

at the same time.

They exist to point

to something far bigger,

far greater,

and that's the longing

and desires we have

to experience the love

of God in our lives.

And that's why Christianity

came into the world

and revolutionized

the reality of,

well,

you can be married

or you can be single

and both are good.

Why?

Because sexuality expressed

in marriage

are not necessary

because they exist simply

to point to something

far greater than themselves.

And that's the love

that we can have

truly fulfilled

with God Himself

through Christ.

And so you can be married

and if you are,

you've got,

you're calling us

to illustrate

the love of the gospel

in your love

for your spouse

to the point

of great cost to yourself.

and physical union

is only appropriate

when you are giving yourself

away self-sacrificially

to somebody.

And you can be single

and you can show forth,

look,

you can be single

and you can show forth

the sufficiency

of God's love

in your life for you.

So if you're married,

you can illustrate

the gospel

in the way

you love your spouse.

If you're single,

you can illustrate

the gospel

in the way

other people can see

you fighting

for sufficiency,

seeing God

as sufficient.

God's love for you

as truly sufficient.

In both ways,

in both ways,

you get to reflect

the highest order

of what these things

exist for

to experience

the love of God

in your life.

God is the true fulfillment

of all of our unmet longings.

That's the real key.

Now that's the key

to the path of fighting

against the problem of lust.

Alright,

so let's turn to that

briefly.

Secondly,

what's the path to healing?

Tonight,

Jesus Christ says

lust is adultery

of the heart,

it's a problem of the heart,

and you can lust

after anything.

A person or a career?

Anything in this life.

And what is the path

to healing?

Let me give you

three quick things.

Number one,

when it comes

to sexual lust,

there may be

some of us tonight

who come and say,

you know,

I can see maybe

that I struggle

with lust of a different kind,

but this is an issue

that's not really my issue.

And if that's you,

then you've got to come

and see tonight

where it is

that your over desires,

your lust,

your idol-making factory,

what is it?

What is the object

of your lust,

your desire?

And that's really important

because we all need

to come tonight

and see that this is

an issue we struggle with.

And the reason

that we need to see that

is because it's very,

very critical

that we protect

this church community

and anybody

that walks through our doors.

And the way

we want to protect them

is that if you

are a person

who is deep

in the muck,

in the darkness perhaps,

of struggling

with patterns of lust

that have led

to all sorts of things

in your life,

you need to know

that the church

is a hospital

for sinners.

Yeah?

And that you can come

and be safe.

And this is not

a space of shame.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ

came to forgive us.

So you can come,

you can come.

You can know

that at St. Columba's

you will always have a place

where you can come

and if you need somebody

to talk to

and to help you fight

the path of lust,

this will be a place

you can do that.

A safe place

that you can come

and do that.

And that means that

for those of us

who don't struggle

as much

with the temptations

of sexual lust,

we've got to be willing

to see,

but boy,

do I struggle with it

in all sorts of other ways.

So that we're humble enough

to keep the church,

this space,

a place that's safe

for people to come

and wrestle and fight

against the sin patterns

that are deep and dark

down in their hearts.

It also means

that we can never be a place

where we're surprised

by sin.

Sin is never surprising.

It's sad.

It hurts.

It's never surprising.

And so we've got to be a place

where people can come

and fight against patterns

of guilt and shame

that are perpetually leading

to the same patterns

of sin in their lives.

Number two,

how do you find,

if you're that person tonight

that's there,

how do you find hope

in the midst of shame

and guilt?

Maybe for some things

you've done,

things that have happened

to you,

patterns that you're

engrossed in right

at the moment.

How do you come

and find hope?

And there's so much

to say here

and I can only say

something for two minutes.

And so what I'll say

is this,

we've got to see

that in the Old Testament

and the New Testament,

the concept of lust

is just idolatry.

It's longing for things

in this life

more than we long

for God.

And every time

we see the prophets

come and talk about idolatry,

what do they say?

They say,

we have all,

you have all Israel,

all of us,

every single human

has committed adultery.

We've chased things,

we've lusted

for things in this life

that we thought

could save us

and satisfy us

far more

than we ever wanted God.

And the thing

that we need tonight

to see is that

Jesus Christ

left His Father's home

above,

so free,

so infinite,

His grace,

to give Himself away

to those that cheated.

That's everybody.

That Jesus Christ

came for the adulterer,

that He came for us,

that He came for us

who chase after

all the wrong things

to seek self-salvation.

Jesus Christ came,

in other words,

to forgive

and to fulfill.

We mentioned this morning

the woman at the well

in John 4.

Let me come back

to her for a second.

Remember what happened

at the woman,

if you've read the Gospels

of John 4,

the woman at the well.

Jesus said,

I can give you water

to drink

by which you will

never be thirsty again.

The waters of eternal life,

and she said,

what are you talking about?

And He said,

look,

go and get your husband

and bring him back

and we can talk about it

all together.

And she said,

I don't have a husband.

And Jesus turns around

and says,

I know you've had five

and the person

that you're living with

right now

is not your husband.

Now why did Jesus do that?

Did He do it just to expose her

and bring shame into her life?

Not at all.

Not at all.

What did He do?

What was He saying?

He's saying,

you've been chasing

relationship

after relationship

after relationship

after relationship

six times now.

And none of it

has ever fulfilled you.

So sexuality expressed,

relationship after relationship,

none of it has ever

really fulfilled you.

But I can tell you today

that I can forgive you

and fulfill you.

That's what He was doing

when He was offering

the water of life.

And Jesus Christ

comes to every one of us today

and says,

I can forgive you

by the power of the cross.

I will forgive you

for everything.

And then I will turn around

and show you

what it means

to reshape your desires,

to fulfill you,

to meet the unmet longings

that you've been chasing

in root of this issue.

And so thirdly and finally,

a couple things

that you can do.

Number one,

let me put it this way.

Jesus tells us

to make a plan.

So if you're a Christian tonight

and you know,

hey, I'm forgiven,

only Christ can fulfill

the desires

that I'm fighting

and battling with here,

Jesus comes

in verse 28 to 30

and He says,

what do you got to do?

He says,

you got to gouge out your eye.

What does He mean by that?

He means you've got to have

a plan in place.

You've got to take steps.

You've got to turn from here

and do something.

And what is it

that you've got to do?

You've got to be practical.

So number one,

to be practical,

to fight this issue of lust,

you've got to first

confess your sins

to one another.

Not to everybody, no.

James,

the book of James

talks to us

about having somebody

in your life

that you can go

and talk to.

And so,

let me say it like this,

it's nearly impossible

to win and tackle

the problem of lust,

the patterns of lust

in your life

without somebody else

walking alongside you.

Nearly impossible.

And I know that

that may be

a step that you've

never taken before,

but it is nearly impossible

to fight this battle

by yourself.

So you probably need

to find somebody

that you really trust

that you can come

and walk alongside in this.

Number two,

start where you are

with deep honesty.

So tonight,

we're going to pray

in just a second.

Are you willing

to pray to God

honestly about

where you are

in this issue?

Sexual sin

that maybe needs

to be repented of?

All sorts of other things

that may be going on

in your heart right now.

It's a place for honesty.

So offer that to you

tonight in prayer.

Third,

don't be passive.

You've got to be

as active as possible

to fight this issue.

And so if you think about,

this is a metaphor,

an illustration

that I've heard

from other people,

but if you want

to be a healthy person,

if you made it

your New Year's resolution

to get really healthy,

to get fit,

you know,

you go to the gym

and it's really

just two things

you've got to do.

One is you need resistance.

Right?

So to get fit,

to grow muscle,

what do you need?

You've got to have resistance.

You've got to pick

something up

that's heavier

than a normal thing

that you pick up.

And that builds muscle.

Right?

And in the same way,

the first step

in spiritual health,

in the health of your heart,

is you've got to have

resistance in your life.

So you've actually

got to actively resist

the sin patterns,

the idolatries,

the lusts

that you are currently

chasing after.

You've got to put

things in your life

that can help you

practically to fight,

to resist.

You've got to resist.

You've got to be really

serious about resistance.

And then what's the second part

of getting fit,

getting healthy?

You've got to have

better nutrition.

Right?

And in the same way,

when it comes to

spiritual life,

better food has to go

down into your soul.

Right?

The better food

than the objects of lust.

The better food

than the imagination

is currently consuming.

And what is that

better food?

And it's this,

and I'll close with this.

The most important

thing we need

is for Jesus Christ,

God Himself,

to become

the apple of our eye.

To become

our greatest desire,

our greatest longing.

God Himself

can fulfill

all of our unmet longings.

And the more

we look at the cross

and meditate

on the cross,

the beauty of Jesus Christ

for us,

the more and more

we'll be able

in this lifetime path

of fighting

the problem of lust,

be able to see

a desire,

a better desire,

a true desire,

good food

replace the bad food

that we've been eating.

It's a lifelong path.

I'll finish with,

I love,

Alan Noble

is one contemporary writer

who's written

a brief book about this.

And he writes this

especially to men,

but of course

it can be for anybody.

But he says this,

that whenever

the temptation

of lust arises,

anytime he notices

another person

and begins

to make them

an object

and reduce

the image of God

in them,

this is what he says.

He says,

that I immediately pray,

Lord,

thank you

for the beauty

you create in others

and help me

to know in my heart

now that such beauty

is not mine

to possess.

Lord,

thank you for the beauty

that you've created

in other people

and thank you,

Lord,

help me now

to realize

that that beauty

is not for me.

It's not mine

to possess.

In other words,

how do you fight

with a better desire?

The answer

is prayer.

Whenever the temptation

arises,

straight to prayer.

Pray without ceasing.

Lift up your heart

to the Lord.

Confess in the moment

my desires are changing,

Lord.

Pray.

And it's very,

very difficult.

It's very helpful

in a season

of temptation

and lust

for whatever it may be

to replace that

with prayer.

Let us pray.

Father,

we come now

before you

needing healing

for things we've done,

for things that have

been done to us,

for patterns

in our lives,

for the misuse

of our imagination.

And Lord,

we ask tonight

that the Holy Spirit

will come and meet

with us in this prayer

and then as we sing

this final song

to bring healing

to us.

Would you,

oh God,

Holy Spirit,

be the air

lifting our wings

that we would see

that there really

is forgiveness,

that you cast

our sexual sins

as far as the east

is from the west

and there really

is a path forward,

a better desire

fulfilled

and a better object,

Jesus Christ.

So Lord Jesus,

please make us,

make yourself to us

the apple of our eye.

Make you

our greatest affection.

We pray the prayer

of St. Augustine tonight.

Give us the desires

you command of us.

And so we pray for that now

in Jesus' name.

Amen.