HOW TO OVERCOME SEXUAL LUST

Gal. 5:16

The Bible, authored by God Himself, and written by man, cannot lie, and when it comes to sexual lust it speaks truthfully and plainly on the subject in both the Old Testament and the New Testament:

1. The Old Testament:
   1. Genesis 2:24-25 – forbids same sex marriage.
   2. Lev. 18:22 – forbids homosexuality and calls it “abominable”.
   3. Prov. 6:32-33 – “A man who commits adultery is a fool and destroys himself.”
   4. The 7^th of the 10 Commandments says “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
   5. Mal. 2:16 – God says “I hate divorce.”
   6. Job 31:1 – Job, “blameless and upright,” (1:1) says “I make a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.
   7. Genesis 37:50 – relates the inspiring story of how a young, handsome man, namely Joseph,  overcame severe and repeated temptations to commit adultery with Potipha’s wife because of his conscience.  “How could I do this evil and sin against God.” (Gen. 39:9).
2. The New Testament:
   1. 1 Cor. 10:13 – Sexual temptation is common to all men.
   2. 1 Cor. 13b – Man is not alone when tempted – God is with him.
   3. James 1:13-16 – Temptation is inevitable, temptation is never prompted by God but our flesh, and lust always follows the same process:

(1)    The bait is dropped,

(2)    Your inner desire is attracted to it.

(3)    As you yield, sin occurs.

(4)    Tragic consequences result.  Like the hooked fish, we end up fried.

1. 1 Cor. 6:18 – “Flee sexual immorality.  All other sins are outside a man’s body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.”
2. 1 Peter 2:11 – “…Abstain fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
3. 1 Cor. 6:9-10 – Gal. 5:19 – Fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom.
4. Matt. 5:28 – Jesus equates the lustful look to adultery.
5. 1 Pet. 2:21 – Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.
6. Luke 4:14 – “Jesus returned to Galilee (after being tempted of the devil) in the power of the Spirit…”
7. Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
8. Matthew 4:1-11 – Jesus in His humanity repelled the Devil’s full-scale attack three times by quoting Scriptures He had memorized, saying aloud

“It is written…(Deut 8:4).

“It is written…(Deut 6:7)

“It is written…(Deut 6:10)

In a word, Jesus had “internalized” the Word, for He quoted verbatim and aloud from memory.

1. FINALLY, the New Testament in one verse (Gal. 5:16) consisting of a strong command and a water tight promise, tells men how to overcome temptations under every conceivable circumstances:  “This I say, then, keep WALKING IN THE SPIRIT – the strong command; and you shall never under any circumstances obey the desires of the sinful nature” – a water-tight promise.  The Greek text reads like this:  “Now I say, in Spirit keeping walking you all and the lust of the flesh by no means (double negative (ou me) you all will perform.”  To express an irrefutable fact the Greeks used  double negatives – not never.  Jesus used these same words in affirming the absolute certainty of eternal life in John 10:28, “I give unto them eternal life and they will not never perish – ou me. If God can give eternal life, He can empower a man to overcome sexual lust.

The Questions:  What does it mean to walk in The Holy Spirit?

To walk in the Spirit means more than to be born of the Spirit.  Every true believer has the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit through the experience of the New Birth (John 3:5; Roman 8:9a; Gal. 4:6).  However, the Holy Spirit desires to be more than “Present,” He desires to be “President” in the believers life.  In order for this to occur, the believer must “be filled” or “controlled by the Holy Spirit which is clearly commanded of all believers in Ephesians 5:18.  This control comes as the believer surrenders or submits to the simple commands of Scripture.  When this surrender is made, the believer can “walk” in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The form of the believers “walk” (peripeite – Greek) indicates continuous action or a habitual life style and also implies progress of growth.  The flesh is not simply the physical body, but includes the mind, will, and emotions which are all subject to sin.  “Flesh”, therefore, can  rule a man’s life.  It is King, and illicit sex is a dominant power, of a man’s thinking and action, unless “King Self” is crucified.  Now crucify is one death a man cannot inflict on himself.  Paul tells us that the flesh has already been crucified by Christ on the cross, and that when we trust Jesus as Lord and Savior we are so identified with Him that we also are “dead” to sin (the flesh), and it is our responsibility to believe this and act upon it.  The apostle does not tell us to “feel” or to understand that we are dead, but to act on God’s Word and claim for himself.  Paul uses 3 words to describe the process:

1. Know you are dead – the mind.
2. Reckon you are dead – the heart.
3. Yield all – the will.

Illus:  The death of Skipper the dog tells us our responsibility in crucifying King Self – the gold text:  Romans 8:13.  “There was a man who had an old dog-named Skipper. Skipper began to have so many health problems that the vet advised the owner that he was going to have to be put to “death.” The man became very agitated and said, “but I can’t do that. I love him too much. I am too attached to him. I just can’t do that.” The vet said, “oh, but don’t you see. That’s my job. You don’t have to do it. I will take care of it for you. But it is your responsibility to give me permission” My friend agreed.  The vet removed Skipper out of his life.  In the same way, you should repent of persisting sin and give the Holy Spirit permission to remove it from your life.  He will.”[1]

Summation of above truth:  Believers are prone to go to extremes.  One interprets liberty as license, and thinks he can do anything he desires (even sin sexually).  Another believer goes to the opposite extreme, and imposes the law on everybody.  Somewhere  between license and legalism is true Christian liberty -the power to do what we ought to do.  Paul says the Christian is a free man.

1. Free from guilt of sin because he has experienced Christ’s forgiveness.
2. Free from penalty of sin, because Christ died for his sins on the cross, and also
3. Free from the power of sin in his daily walk through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Supreme Proof of the power over the most powerful sin in a guy’s life (sexual sin) is the power he has through his surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the same power God used when He raised Jesus from the dead (Ephes. 1:19-20) the power He will exert one day when He raises our dead bodies from the grave (Romans 8:11), and the power He gives daily to overcome sexual lust which often leads to physical fornication or adultery.  Praise the Lord, however, if God cannot deliver his children, then He cannot save from the most damning sin on earth  (1 Cor. 6:18b) but God emphatically promised to deliver (Gal. 5:16).

Can any man doubt that God can deliver him from sexual lust (best expressed in pornography) and illicit sexual sin?  The only guy he will not deliver is the guy who does not posses the Holy Spirit because he has never been born of the Holy Spirit or if having the Holy Spirit, he has never completely surrendered to Him

Please revisit the 22 ways man can overcome sexual sin listed in our textbook, The 10 Absolute Life Changers, pp. 114-120, but understand that you cannot obey these commandments in your strength or on  the advice of some counselor, but only if you are daily surrendered or controlled by the Holy Spirit enabling  you to walk in obedience to the Lord’s commands, such as daily prayer, internalizing the Word, etc.

My dear brothers and fellow strugglers, choose you this day to whom you will surrender – to your own selfish desires or to your only deliverer, the Holy Spirit.