Two Strategies to Win the War on Lust
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, winning the war against lust
00:00:06.040 | is by far the most common theme
00:00:07.680 | of all the emails we get in our inbox.
00:00:10.080 | And today's question comes from an anonymous listener.
00:00:12.760 | Hello, Pastor John, thank you for taking my question.
00:00:15.040 | I am a female college student in Maryland
00:00:17.320 | and I love listening to your podcast.
00:00:19.020 | Thank you for the encouragement
00:00:20.840 | and the truth that you put out each week.
00:00:23.180 | My question is this,
00:00:24.640 | how exactly does one transform the way they think?
00:00:27.920 | The Bible talks about letting your mind be transformed,
00:00:30.200 | but I feel like it's not so cut and dry
00:00:32.680 | as it is laid out in scripture.
00:00:34.800 | Lately, I've been struggling with lustful thoughts
00:00:36.840 | that make me feel very insecure and guilty.
00:00:39.700 | So how do I deal with this,
00:00:40.880 | especially in a sex crazed culture?
00:00:44.320 | I wanna fight the temptations
00:00:45.640 | and every time a lustful thought occurs,
00:00:47.040 | I feel like I've let God down.
00:00:49.560 | How do I let my mind get transformed as the Bible says,
00:00:52.680 | so that I can win this overwhelming and exhausting battle?
00:00:56.640 | How exactly does one transform the way they think?
00:01:01.480 | That's where she starts.
00:01:02.520 | So let me pick up there.
00:01:04.220 | There's so many pieces to her words
00:01:06.320 | that I'm probably not gonna touch on every one of them,
00:01:09.340 | but let me give our college student friend in Maryland
00:01:14.340 | a simple two-part paradigm
00:01:19.620 | for transforming the way she, we think,
00:01:25.660 | and then try to fill it out with a few details.
00:01:28.840 | Let me use the analogy of becoming physically fit
00:01:32.680 | or physically transformed into fitness
00:01:35.380 | to illustrate how we may become spiritually
00:01:38.320 | or mentally transformed in fitness.
00:01:41.940 | Almost everybody would see the common sense
00:01:44.740 | in saying that if you want to be physically fit,
00:01:49.160 | there would be two aspects to the process of transformation.
00:01:52.720 | Let's call them resistance and reception.
00:01:56.580 | By resistance, I mean the kinds of exercises
00:01:59.660 | that put your muscle under great deal
00:02:03.000 | of unnatural strain, right?
00:02:05.760 | For example, you want your biceps to be stronger
00:02:08.960 | so you can lift heavier packages
00:02:11.120 | or lift light ones more easily.
00:02:13.600 | You curl a weight up and down,
00:02:18.600 | say 10, 15, 20 pounds,
00:02:20.820 | and you do it enough times that the last one,
00:02:23.080 | you can barely do it.
00:02:25.560 | The resistance is so strong against your bicep.
00:02:30.560 | And in that process of resistance,
00:02:34.280 | the bicep ironically becomes stronger.
00:02:38.420 | It's strange that you make yourself look like an idiot,
00:02:42.180 | trembling and pulling and unable to pull it up
00:02:45.520 | for the 10th or 20th time,
00:02:47.680 | and out of that weakness, a few weeks later,
00:02:51.160 | lo and behold, your bicep is stronger.
00:02:55.020 | And what I mean by reception, so that was resistance.
00:02:58.580 | What I mean by reception is that you take into your body,
00:03:02.900 | you receive healthy foods and sufficient sleep,
00:03:07.160 | the kind of activity that is not so much pushing
00:03:11.220 | against something, but rather welcoming right
00:03:13.900 | and good things into your body.
00:03:16.900 | So there's the analogy, and you can work with it
00:03:20.200 | and see if I've got it right physically,
00:03:22.420 | 'cause I don't know much about that,
00:03:24.240 | but it seems to work for me.
00:03:26.360 | And now let's apply it to the spiritual mental fitness
00:03:30.380 | of the way the Bible says it happens.
00:03:34.420 | And of course, these resistance and reception
00:03:38.560 | are not sequential.
00:03:39.780 | They're not sequential, like some days you do resistance
00:03:42.500 | and some days you eat.
00:03:43.900 | No, it's simultaneous at the same time,
00:03:46.140 | in the same days.
00:03:48.140 | First, there's the biblical principle of resistance.
00:03:53.060 | So James says in James 4, 7,
00:03:55.340 | "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
00:03:58.740 | And Paul says in Romans 8, 13,
00:04:01.340 | "Put to death, kill the deeds of the body by the spirit."
00:04:05.420 | So we kill specific sins by targeting them
00:04:09.380 | with lethal resistance.
00:04:12.100 | James 1, verse 3,
00:04:13.900 | "The testing of your faith produces steadfastness."
00:04:18.900 | So the testing of faith corresponds
00:04:22.820 | to the lifting of the barbell by your bicep.
00:04:26.820 | Some temptation or some suffering comes into your life
00:04:30.620 | and threatens to conquer you
00:04:33.260 | and ruin your faith and your holiness.
00:04:36.640 | And you have to lay hold on a promise of God
00:04:39.100 | and push hard against the rising doubt and unbelief
00:04:44.100 | with all your might as you rely upon the promise of God.
00:04:48.340 | And so push back the encroaching darkness,
00:04:51.980 | just like you push on the floor when you do pushups.
00:04:55.900 | Why?
00:04:57.480 | Because this produces steadfastness or endurance.
00:05:02.480 | This means that those tests,
00:05:04.720 | those pressures of unbelief and temptation,
00:05:09.720 | those tests that have to be resisted by faith
00:05:14.820 | result in two things.
00:05:15.940 | They enable us to resist greater tests,
00:05:18.900 | greater temptations, greater suffering in the future.
00:05:23.020 | And they enable us to meet the old test
00:05:26.140 | that used to make us stumble with relative ease
00:05:29.460 | so that we're not thrown into crisis
00:05:32.140 | every time we meet some sexual temptation, say.
00:05:37.140 | Now, all of this applies to lust and sexual temptation
00:05:41.800 | because those are thoughts and tests
00:05:44.700 | that we have to resist.
00:05:47.020 | We have to take hold of a promise of Christ,
00:05:49.860 | believe it, and then use it to push,
00:05:53.300 | actively push the thought out of our minds.
00:05:57.260 | We say, "No, no, no."
00:06:00.000 | I mean, I do this.
00:06:01.280 | I'm not kidding here.
00:06:02.700 | I mean, a thought, some lustful thought or some image
00:06:05.820 | comes into your mind,
00:06:07.420 | and you've got about five seconds to decide
00:06:10.260 | whether you're gonna let it take over
00:06:12.500 | or whether you're gonna push on it with,
00:06:14.500 | "No, you're out of here.
00:06:15.740 | "In Jesus' name, you're out of here."
00:06:17.960 | Directing your attention to some superior promise.
00:06:20.940 | Jesus is better.
00:06:21.860 | Jesus is enough.
00:06:23.020 | He said this.
00:06:23.900 | You're out of here, and you keep pushing until it's gone.
00:06:27.360 | So that's what I mean by resistance.
00:06:30.660 | The resistance half of transformation.
00:06:34.040 | And I want to encourage you that even though it may feel
00:06:38.280 | or sound exhausting at first,
00:06:41.380 | it really does yield a peaceful fruit of righteousness.
00:06:45.780 | Read Hebrews 12, and you'll see what I mean.
00:06:50.140 | Now, here's the second half.
00:06:51.640 | That's only the first half.
00:06:52.780 | And so many Christians try to solve the problems
00:06:57.780 | of their temptations and their defeats
00:06:59.840 | only by the resistance half of sanctification.
00:07:03.620 | It won't work.
00:07:04.460 | It just won't work in the long run.
00:07:05.900 | So let me give what I mean by the reception part.
00:07:10.900 | Second Corinthians 3:18,
00:07:14.960 | "We all, with unveiled face,
00:07:17.000 | "beholding the glory of the Lord,
00:07:19.380 | "are being transformed into the same image
00:07:23.480 | "from one degree of glory to another.
00:07:25.460 | "This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
00:07:29.760 | Notice, this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
00:07:33.180 | We are receivers.
00:07:34.460 | We are receivers.
00:07:36.380 | This is the reception side.
00:07:38.820 | We are fixing our gaze on the glory of the Lord.
00:07:43.820 | And we do that mainly in the Word.
00:07:46.460 | We linger over the sweet and beautiful descriptions
00:07:51.420 | of the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
00:07:55.060 | We marinate our minds receptively by faith
00:08:00.060 | in the crock pot of God's Word.
00:08:06.000 | And we fix our eyes, the eyes of our hearts on Jesus.
00:08:11.000 | And the more we receive and receive into our hearts
00:08:14.800 | the beauty of Christ through the eyes of the heart
00:08:19.040 | as we read and meditate,
00:08:21.280 | the more we will have his desires.
00:08:25.000 | His preferences, his convictions.
00:08:28.000 | We will be receptively transformed.
00:08:33.000 | Oh, how sweet to have that receptive transformation
00:08:38.040 | so that the hooks of the devil
00:08:42.720 | don't even lodge themselves anymore.
00:08:46.000 | Here's another passage to stir in.
00:08:48.560 | Colossians 3.10, that reminds us
00:08:52.360 | that in Jesus we are new creatures.
00:08:55.360 | We have new selves, but we must put on the new self.
00:09:00.360 | That is, receive the new self.
00:09:05.080 | Put it on like a coat, consciously receive it.
00:09:08.520 | But there's a phrase in Colossians 3.10
00:09:11.040 | that tips us off how it happens.
00:09:13.760 | It says, "Put on the new self," and here it comes,
00:09:18.360 | "which is being renewed in knowledge
00:09:23.360 | after the image of its creator."
00:09:26.640 | So the transformation of the mind and the desires
00:09:31.200 | and the thoughts of the new self happens in knowledge.
00:09:36.200 | This is just like saying, "Look to Jesus more and more
00:09:40.720 | and your thoughts and your feelings will be changed.
00:09:43.400 | You will experience your newness."
00:09:46.640 | Here's the last passage I'll mention
00:09:49.120 | that relates to newness through beholding Christ,
00:09:52.400 | newness through knowledge,
00:09:54.280 | and it relates specifically to sexual temptation.
00:09:57.720 | 1 Thessalonians 4, verses three through five.
00:10:01.920 | Here's what Paul says.
00:10:03.120 | "This is the will of God, your sanctification,
00:10:06.960 | that you abstain from sexual immorality,
00:10:10.800 | that each one of you know how to control his own body
00:10:13.560 | in holiness and honor," and here comes the key,
00:10:17.260 | "not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles
00:10:22.260 | who do not know God."
00:10:28.680 | So notice where Paul lays the fault of sexual passion,
00:10:33.280 | taking control and ruining our lives.
00:10:35.840 | He says that passion, that sinful passion,
00:10:39.440 | rules in people who do not know,
00:10:44.440 | just like Colossians 3.10, don't know,
00:10:47.000 | just like 2 Corinthians 3.18, don't see, don't meditate on,
00:10:51.160 | don't know, don't absorb, don't receive the knowledge of God.
00:10:55.380 | In other words, they haven't been renewed in knowledge.
00:10:59.760 | They haven't set their minds to behold the glory of Jesus
00:11:04.760 | day and night so that they become like what they admire
00:11:09.000 | and so they are at the mercy of their sinful passions
00:11:12.920 | because they haven't been transformed
00:11:14.920 | by putting on the new self, renewed in knowledge.
00:11:19.920 | So that's the biblical pattern of transforming our minds
00:11:25.720 | and our hearts so that we are less vulnerable
00:11:31.240 | to sexual temptation.
00:11:32.520 | It's both resistance against unbelief and temptation
00:11:36.660 | and doubt and Satan, and it is the sweet,
00:11:41.600 | enjoyable reception through God's word
00:11:45.720 | of the preciousness and the beauty
00:11:47.960 | and the greatness of Jesus.
00:11:51.440 | Both resistance and reception over time
00:11:55.520 | transforms our hearts and our minds.
00:12:00.400 | - So critical.
00:12:01.240 | Thank you, Pastor John, for joining in the fight
00:12:03.160 | against lust over the years
00:12:04.240 | and for taking so many questions in the podcast
00:12:07.720 | about this ongoing struggle.
00:12:08.960 | And thanks for the question.
00:12:10.040 | Many questions are anonymous.
00:12:11.800 | We always respect your privacy when you send those in to us
00:12:13.960 | and just say in the email,
00:12:15.880 | I would prefer not to have my name mentioned.
00:12:17.560 | We'll always respect that.
00:12:20.640 | And many of our questions come from college students
00:12:22.540 | who are seeking to honor Christ on campus,
00:12:24.400 | and it's not easy.
00:12:25.320 | In fact, it's a huge challenge for students
00:12:27.160 | who are in state colleges, in private colleges,
00:12:30.400 | Christian colleges, all of them come
00:12:31.960 | with real-life temptations that resonate
00:12:33.600 | with many other listeners.
00:12:35.200 | And we would love to hear the questions that you face
00:12:37.640 | because every time we get a question,
00:12:39.640 | it's articulating questions and challenges
00:12:41.840 | that many other listeners face.
00:12:43.600 | That's really what this podcast is about.
00:12:45.160 | It's about hearing from you to address a group of people
00:12:48.720 | who are facing the same thing
00:12:50.560 | because we are really in this together,
00:12:52.400 | helping one another.
00:12:54.060 | And you can send us your questions
00:12:55.480 | through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:13:00.320 | I am not sure what's next on the docket,
00:13:03.660 | but Lord willing, we will return on Friday
00:13:05.180 | with another one of your excellent
00:13:06.340 | and thoughtful and specific questions.
00:13:08.220 | I'm your host Tony Reik.
00:13:09.060 | Thanks for listening to the podcast,
00:13:10.340 | and we will see you next time.
00:13:11.820 | (upbeat music)
00:13:14.400 | (upbeat music)
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