Overcoming Lust - Part 1 (Compilation)

1 Thessalonians 4 connects it with God. Each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion. Like the Gentiles who do not know God.

What's he saying? He's saying If you yield to a life driven by lustful passion, you act like you don't know God. Your attitude to sin is going to be the most important thing that's going to matter when you stand before the Lord. Let me tell you that.

Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from sin. You've heard me speak about internet pornography a number of times. It's a man who's losing his love for God who clicks on some site to watch internet pornography.

That's one of the clearest evidences that his love for God is going down. Because iniquity shall abound. There's plenty of iniquity on the internet.

The love of many will grow cold. Is that happening to you? 30% of internet pornography is viewed by women. Yes, it feels good.

But it's very short-term. And then comes the remorse. Then comes the misery.

Then comes the guilt. Then comes the shattered family. Then comes the ruined career.

Then comes the late night grieving. And then, in the end, if you haven't learned to fight at all, then comes hell. Which is why Hebrews 11.25 talks about the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Sure, they're pleasures. Nobody's arguing that. Go do your thing if you want to.

But it's going to fly away. Guilt and pain are gifts of God to warn us that the pleasures of sin are suicidal. Do this.

You need it. You want it. You'll feel good if you do it.

There is some truth to it. The problem is sin doesn't satisfy. And then they desire some deceit.

And the way they succeed is by deceiving us, lying to us. It's lying to you. Just punch that little mouse button and get that nude up on the screen.

Or, or, or, or, whatever your besetting sin may be, it's a lie. Sin does not satisfy. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

The evidence of being born of God is that you make war on your sin. The amazing thing is that there may be a temporary thrill, but soon enough, the hole is bigger than it was before. Soon enough, the desire is greater than it was before.

Let's say that you were playing some sport outside. It's hot out. It's miserably oppressive.

You're desperately thirsty. Someone says, hey, drink this. Boy, it looks good.

Just the bottle that it's in looks good and it looks chilled and everything. And you drink it, and for a moment, it gives you this incredible feeling. But two minutes later, it creates an unbelievable thirst far beyond what you had before.

Would you drink it? If it didn't actually quench the thirst, after one or two times, you wouldn't do it. You'd remember, I'm not going to touch this, because if I do, it's going to make things worse than before. And that leads me to the second principle, which is this.

Sin leads to more sin. Unfought lust will destroy the soul. So sin takes over the desires, makes liars out of them.

They promise satisfaction and happiness, and they deliver cheap, fleeting, shallow stimulation that leaves us less content, less peaceful, less hopeful, more guilty, more restless, more discouraged, more enslaved. Learn this, so that you can defeat the lie in the moment with truth. Learn this.

They'll lead to death in the end. Verse 21 of this chapter says, the outcome of those things is death. If I could remember the way I felt after sinning, and hold on to that, the next time temptation came knocking at my door, I'd say no.

Here's the problem. All that sin did was create an appetite to do it again. Even if you had a miserable experience in doing it, even if it totally let you down, even if you felt ashamed in the process, what happens is, that thing leaves, and it comes back with appeal again.

Problem is, you're a little bit weaker this time. Problem is, your resolve is not as strong as it used to be, because you blew it. Problem is, that image, those things have been playing in your mind, and kind of pulling on you, and you fall again.

I can't believe it, I'll never do that again. Two weeks later, back again. One week later, back again.

Before you know it, you're a slave. You're a slave. Sin doesn't satisfy.

When it tells you, you'll get relief. When it tells you, you'll get the release that you need. When it tells you, you'll get that satisfaction.

When it tells you, the tension will break, and the freedom will be there, it's a lie. Because it's not going to satisfy, and all it's going to do is lead to more sin. I'm telling you, you're going to have to resist it.

And the more you fed your mind with it, the more you trained your body toward it, the more you've given your heart toward it, the more difficult, the stronger the test. And the fire, the more heat there is to the fire. Are you hearing what I'm saying? But, God doesn't leave you on your own.

The Holy Spirit of God is there to do a sanctifying work in you. All God wants you to do, is make a choice. You choose, you're not going to walk that way.

You're not going to turn to the right. You're not going to turn to the left. But you say to that idol, that temptation, that sin, be gone out of my life, I choose Jesus.

Now, you can put yourself in temptation unnecessarily. You can open a pornographic book and say, Lord, lead me not into temptation. That's a lot of rubbish.

You know, you keep cigarettes in your drawer and say, Lord, please don't let me smoke, Lord. Destroy those cigarettes. You can't keep sources of temptation around you and say, Lord, deliver me from temptation.

The Bible says, run away from temptation. You say, man, I don't watch people take their clothes off on TV. I mean, Steve Hill preaches about that.

What's he so fanatical about? That doesn't bother me. Friend, it doesn't bother you because your heart is hard. What's your problem, man? You don't go to the beach with all these bikini-clad people walking around.

What's your problem? My problem is I love Jesus. My problem is that that stuff is unclean and defiling and brings lustful, suggestive thoughts into your mind. And if it doesn't bring them into your mind, it's not because you're so holy, but because you're so hard.

A man will cut off his leg to save his life. Will you cut off your leg and gouge out your eye to save your eternity? That's what Jesus says. Be thrown into hell.

We should fight this lust thing with hellish proportions. He meant, do whatever you must do to get this sight and temptation out of your head. I want to be free.

Who cries out at night? Who wets his pillow with tears? You've got to resist the first step because the first step always leads to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. It always does. It's inevitable.

Unless that chain is broken through true repentance and a radical turning back, one sin leads to another sin. Oh, how many pastors. The statistic a few years ago was ten percent in our denomination in Minnesota had come down over this.

Ten percent had failed to gouge out their eye, cut off their leg. And do whatever was necessary to find Christ a superior pleasure.