There is a growing population of men in the church today who take lightly the teachings of Jesus. In Matthew 5:28-30 Jesus, that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.There is a sense of lethality in the words of Jesus here. And frankly I don’t think men take these words seriously enough. The issue is the heart. I hear men who get excited about the fact that they have not looked at sexually explicit materials in “the last week” even though in their heart they wanted to so desperately. This was brought to my attention recently as I was reading an article from Christianity Today entitled Addicted to Sex. I was bothered by the article because it lacked a Christocentric (Christ Centered) approach in dealing with the issue of sexual sin. It had an anthropocentric (man centered) approach to overcoming sexual sin. Not one time in this article was it mentioned that the greatest remedy for any kind of sexual sin problem is to be satisfied with Christ above the sin. John Piper has stated on several occasions that, “Jesus Christ was the most satisfied man that ever walked the face of this earth, and he never had one sexual experience.” He was satisfied because His satisfaction was in His Father.
Men will never overcome their sin of seeking pleasure for their own satisfaction if they never get to the place where Christ is their greatest satisfaction. At the core of every sin, whether it is sexual immorality, anger, impatience, anxiousness, etc… is the insatiable desire to satisfy one’s self. But because I’m writing about sexual sin, that is going to be my emphasis.
Being satisfied with Christ was the missing element in the Christianity Today article. No doubt, some men have a more difficult time dealing with certain sins than other men. Just as some people are more prone to worry than others because of their disposition. However, the solution for any sin remains the same for the believer in Jesus Christ. Put the sinful tendency off and put on Christ (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3). Think less of that sinful pleasure and think more about Christ. David said in Psalm 119:11, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you… Jesus said in John 17:17, sanctify them in the truth, Your word is the Truth. This means putting off the sin that entangles us and meditating on Scripture. Here’s the problem. We want quick results. We think that just because we start meditating on a passage all the desire for lust will be gone that week. There are no quick fixes. We must constantly be on guard. We can remove all the possible sexually explicit materials that we may come in contact with (which I believe is a good thing). We can install “safe eyes.” We can put in all kinds of filters on our computer. We can get rid of cable TV. We can get rid of the TV all together, but the issue still falls back on the heart. You must be relentless in putting the Scripture into your mind (Col. 3:16). You must get up early and plead with the Lord for a heart that is pure. You must go to bed praying that God would give you the grace to rise up the next day to live a life that is consistent with his calling of you (Ephesians 4:1). You must fix your eyes on Jesus. The author of Hebrews writes this to, …lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin… (Heb. 12:1-4). This is a call for each man to keep his gaze on the finished work of Christ on the cross. The battle over sexual sin (or any sin for that matter) is won by constantly reminding ourselves of God’s redemptive work in His son. If you remove the redemptive work of God in the cross of Jesus Christ in your battle against sin, then your religion is no different than any other religion that trumpets the work of man as its highest aim; that is a form of self righteousness. And Jesus warned those who desire to enter the kingdom of heaven to rise above self righteousness (cf. Matt 5:20). The righteousness God demands is a righteousness that meets His standards. That is why He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor. 5:21).
Therefore, set up your hedges against the temptation to sin. Have other’s hold you accountable. But do not remove your eyes from the one who for the joy set before him endured the cross, finished the race perfectly, and after making purification of sins sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high (cf Heb 1:4).
