Hello everyone, this is Tony. We have quite an episode for you today, but before we start I have a favor. We love serving you on this podcast and we want to serve you even better in 2020 and beyond. And to serve you better means we need to know you better.

And to that end we put together a brief little survey that takes just a few minutes to fill out. You can go to DesiringGod.org/survey That's DesiringGod.org/survey and that survey will be up until the end of January. Here now is today's episode. Well seven years ago this week we launched this podcast.

1,400 episodes later here we are finally addressing the topic of sexualized dreams. Yes, sexualized dreams. Easily one of the most asked about topics in the inbox and certainly the most asked about topic we've brushed off to date. No longer. Here's an email from an anonymous man. "Hello Pastor John and thank you for this podcast.

I am 31, a believer, married for 12 years to a wonderful Christian woman. I'm familiar with the commands of God about sexual sin and its eternal dangers. I have for almost a year now successfully battled sin with pornography thanks to prayer, God's Word, help from my wife, my pastor, and an outside organization that tracks internet activity for accountability purposes.

I know and agree that sex outside of marriage is sinful and wrong. Even that desire itself is sinful as Jesus said. My question though is as follows. Why do I have lucid sexual dreams with people other than my wife, even people I've never met before? These dreams bother me intensely even after I wake up because I can't help but feel that I have sinned.

And even worse, I feel as if I had no control over it as with most of my dreams. I have a pretty unhealthy sleep pattern partly because I would rather not dream at all. I am quite troubled by it and any help would be appreciated. Pastor John, what would you say to him?

The first thing I would say is that I don't know why this is happening, so I don't want to pose as having a psychological or a spiritual or a physical hormonal surefire answer to what's going on. I think it's good to be bothered by it like he is and like others are, but not good to be undone by it.

Let me make that distinction. Let me give four passages of Scripture that might shed light on the way dreams work, what they mean, what they're about, and then end with five very brief practical suggestions. And what I'm praying is that these texts just might be used by the Holy Spirit for some fresh power of deliverance from dreams that we can't control, but God can.

So here's number one. Zechariah 10 verse 2. "The household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies. They tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted for lack of a shepherd." Now this simple point follows. There is such a thing as false dreams.

That doesn't mean claiming to dream when you don't dream. It's not like these folks were saying they had a dream and they didn't have a dream. That's not what it means. It means they're claiming that their dreams had a particular meaning, which they didn't. There are false meanings. Dreams come and they deliver false messages to us.

So my first exhortation is, "Say to the Lord and to the dream and to the devil, 'That was a false dream.'" It does not mean I am unfaithful. I mean to be faithful to my wife. I am not unfaithful to her. Those dreams are a lie. So say that on the basis of the reality of the Bible that there is such a thing as a false dream.

Here's number two. Deuteronomy 13 1 to 3. "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and that sign or wonder comes to pass, and he says, 'Let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul." Wow! God uses false prophets and lying dreams, even accompanied by supernatural signs and wonders, to test his people. So it's not wrong, while these dreams are tormenting you, to say, "Dreams, Satan, brain, hormones, whatever you are, I won't be sucked in by this.

I see how my faith is being tested here. Do I love my wife? Do I love purity? Do I love holiness? Do I love Christ who died to make me pure? Yes, I do. I will not be undone by this test. I will pass it by faith in the blood of Jesus to cover all my sins, to empower me to walk in the truth." So I think it's not wrong to say, "I don't know why, but I'm being tested by these dreams and I'm gonna pass this test." Here's number three, Isaiah 29 7 and 8.

This comes as close as anything, as far as I can see in the Bible, to a Freudian view of dreams, namely that they signal deep needs or desires, even sexual ones. Here's what it says, "The nations that fight against Israel shall be like a dream, a vision of the night, as when a hungry man dreams, and behold he's eating, and awakens with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold he's drinking, and he awakens faint with his thirst not quenched.

So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion." So the point of this text most immediately is the nations who think they're going to win against Israel will no more win than the dreamer got his thirst quenched in dreaming. That's the point. Now here's my reason for pointing out this text.

It's not that. It was common knowledge, evidently. Thirst might make a person dream of drinking only to be frustrated. Hunger might make a person dream about eating only to wake up hungry. And I would say in the same way sexual hormones, desires, impulses, born of nature, might make a person dream he's having sex, and he wakes up and he didn't have sex.

Now that does not explain why you would dream about women who are not your wife. That may be traced to old patterns of fantasies that go back 30 years, 20 years, 15 years, and need to be broken. But the point here is there is nothing remarkable when a physical craving like hunger or thirst or sexuality cause a dream that the craving is being satisfied when it isn't.

And the question is what will you do with it in the waking life? That's the question. Not just that it's happening. Here's the last one. Job 33 14 following. God speaks in one way and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, then God opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings that he may turn aside man from his deed and conceal pride from man.

He keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. That's amazing. That text teaches that God really does use dreams to terrify us with warnings in order to humble our pride and keep us back from sin. But if that's true, one way to look at sexually illicit dreams, that is dreams when you're doing illicit things in the dream, one way to look at them is that God is terrifying us in our dreams of the horror of this prospect in real life so that we won't do it.

So we're back at the idea of being tested, like it said earlier. Will the dream have its God-appointed effect of humbling us, frightening us about our own bent to sinning, and will we lay hold on him for purity in waking life? So here are my five quick bullet suggestions flowing from those few biblical observations.

Number one, pray earnestly for deliverance from the dreams and gather some brothers around you to join in earnest prayer. Number two, read the scriptures for five or ten minutes just before you go to sleep. Some portion about God's work and his value, like Philippians 3 8 or Colossians 1 15 to 18 or Hebrews 1 1 to 3, soak your mind in the Word just before you go to sleep.

Number three, purge your movie and TV habits of all sexually stimulating content. Not just porn, but worldly sexuality. Now that's just about all TV shows and all movies. Sorry about that. You don't need it. Christians for 2,000 years did not feed their minds on movies every night. It won't help you to be stirred up by so-called PG-13 movies that have sexually titillating scenes in them.

Number four, perhaps get a sleep study done. I've had these, my wife has had this, to see whether or not there are any physical irregularities. And number five, the last one, when all is said and done, trust the promises of Psalm 25 and say with confidence, "My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net." That's verse 15.

Profound insights here, Pastor John, to one of the most perplexing questions we get in the inbox. Thank you for addressing it. Well, what does your marriage most need from you? That's a great question. It's a searching question. And it's up next time when we return on Wednesday. Until then, if you're willing to help us out, fill out our online survey.

Go to DesiringGod.org/survey. That's DesiringGod.org/survey.