A. Have a teachable
heart.
Prov. 6:20---My
son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's
teaching. [Many a foolish person has fallen into sexual sin
because they simply would not heed the warnings of the wise about
discretion and appropriate behavior. When someone tells you that
close physical contact with someone of the opposite sex in a
romantic context when others aren't around is a great risk, heed
the warning! Have discretion! The trash heap is littered with the
lives of those who blew it off or got mad when someone questioned
the appropriateness of a person's behavior with the opposite
sex].
B. Be fully committed in your heart
to learning and applying Biblical truth.
Prov.
6:21---Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them
around your neck. [To bind and fasten something means to
secure it so that it will never be lost. This is what we are to do
with God's commands. The Word is to be driven so deep into our
hearts that nothing can shake it out, not even temptation to sexual
lust. You will pass through many difficult situations in life that
will try to jar God's truth out of your life. You must drive it
deep enough into your heart that it cannot be shaken lose by
anything].
C. Have a positive attitude toward
God's Word, understanding that its truths will protect you from a
life of spiritual misery and being helplessly enslaved to
lust.
Prov.
6:22-24---22 When you walk, they will guide you; when
you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will
speak to you. 23 For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a
light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, 24
keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the
wayward wife. [The only way to overcome lust is to fill our
hearts and minds with the truths of God's Word. Instead of a
secretive person of deceit, we must become transparent, open,
devoted to truth. God's Word gives us light to show us the way and
keep us from stumbling. It corrects wrong thinking and behavior to
bring discipline to our lives. It keeps us from being deceived.
---There is no growth and change without God's Word.]
D. Guard your heart. Watch what you
look at. Watch where you go and what you do. Guard your thought
life.
Prov. 6:25---Do
not lust after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
[You will never be able to do this unless your heart is
marinated in the Word of God. Only the Word can cleanse and purify
the heart and mind (Psalm 119:9,11). Only the Word and the Spirit
using the Word can give you the discipline to say "no" when Master
Lust lays his temptations before you.
1. Jesus pointed out a key issue in
battling lust in the Sermon on the Mount. You must guard what you
look at.
a. Matthew
5:27-28---27 You have heard that it was said, "Do not
commit adultery." 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a
woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. [When Jesus speaks of looking upon a woman lustfully,
he is not speaking of the kind of casual visual contact that we all
must make all the time with others, but of the second look, the
stare. Jesus is talking about looking at a woman and really
"checking her out", as the old saying goes. There is a real eye
discipline that must be developed if one is to break the hold of
lust.
b. Matthew
6:22-23---22 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your
eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if
your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If
then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
[This is a very important warning to those who dabble in
pornography or don't guard what they watch on TV and videos. You
are either admitting light or darkness into your heart through the
eye-gate. If you admit darkness, Jesus warns that it will take a
firm grip on your heart and your whole life will be corrupted by
this darkness.]
E. Consider the terrible cost of
flirting with Master Lust. It will take hold of your life and bind
you in its ropes. It will destroy your life. You will not escape
the terrible price of this sin.
Prov.
6:26-29---26 for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf
of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. 27 Can a
man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? 28
Can a man walk on hot coals without without his feet being
scorched? 29 So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one
who touches her will go unpunished. [Verse 25 warns against
letting the flesh be captivated by the looks of someone of the
opposite sex. One of the ways to keep from being taken captive by
lust is to thoroughly consider the warning in verses 26-29. If you
play with fire you will get burned. Lust will destroy
you.]
Prov.
6:30-31---30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. 31 Yet if he is caught,
he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his
house. [People might have a little pity on a thief who
steals because he is hungry. Yet even he must be punished for his
sin.]
Prov.
6:32-33---32 But a man who commits adultery lacks
judgement; whoever does so destroys himself. 33 Blows and disgrace
are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. [There
is no pity by others toward the person who engages in sexual sin.
He is a fool who lacks discipline and sound judgement. He is like
an idiotic youngster playing "chicken" with trains on the railroad
track. He may love the thrill of jumping out of the way just in
time, but he will soon be ground under the wheels of a freight,
destroyed by his own foolishness. Once you have fallen sexually, it
is a tough, tough road to remove the shame and disgrace. It can be
done in the power of Christ, but it is a long, hard road back to
integrity and trust.]
Prov. 6:34-35---34 for jealousy arouses a
husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. 35
He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe,
however great it is. [Spouses who are transgressed against
by sexual sin are very hard to win back. Elsewhere in Proverbs we
are told that an offended brother is harder to win back than taking
a walled city in battle (Prov. 18:19). Sexual sin causes terrible
hurt and, apart from Christ, irreparable damage to marriage
relationships. What a horrible price to pay for literally minutes
of self-centered pleasure!]
