Seven Deadly Sins

by Lawrence Kelley

Lust

Lust is commonly used to refer to uncontrolled sexual desire and it is this ordinary sense that we want to consider this morning. There are important things we need to know about lust:

First, sexual desire is not sinful in itself (Prov 5:15-19). However, it must be controlled by keeping it under the direction God gives in His word (Heb 13:14). All sane men recognize the necessity of sexual restraint. If the average man, even the one claiming to be a libertine, did whatever he felt like it would be no time until he destroyed himself. All of us practice restraint, the question is not whether, but which boundaries will we recognize as authoritative? As Christians the boundary markers are very clear, either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your mate, or else total abstinence.

Second, nothing is a man's own so much as his lusts. Man aims wholly at himself in satisfying his lust. A man who is looking for a one night stand says, "he want's a woman," but this is not the truth. He wants a sensation, the necessary apparatus for which happens to be a female body. It is an entirely selfish and self-absorbed thing having nothing to do with what may be properly termed "making love."

Third, while sexual lust is associated with the body, its source is the heart. Jesus said, that adultery and fornication come from the heart (Matt 5:19). The point I want to establish here is that lust isn't something we may excuse on what advertisers, media or our permissive culture are doing to us - whether it be trotting out babes in bikinis, marketing steamy romance novels, or broadcasting sexually explicit music. You could build a log cabin in the middle of a desolate prairie w/ no tv, internet or other external stimuli and still be boiling over with lust. This means that lust has to be dealt with in the heart which involves continual prayer, possibly accompanied by fasting, repentance confession and accountability.

Fourth, not to contradict the previous point, but our lusts are inflamed by the environment we put ourselves into. In other words, lust begins in our hearts, but when we allow ourselves to come into contact with suggestive or explicit sexual messages or images, we are going to incite our hearts to lust. Living in our times means we must have the wisdom of a serpent. We must understand from our youth, that modern lust mongers have perfected the snipe hunt. They promise you things that they know are not there. The man who pursues what they offer is but a nave that the marketeers and models laugh at all the way to the bank. If we are to win the war against lust, we must put up fire walls.

Fifth, Lust has an insatiable Appetite - if you feed it - it only craves more. You cannot appease sinful desire. The scriptural response is to mortify i.e. put to death the sinful deeds of the flesh (Col 3:5-6).

Sexual immorality is not a toy that we can play with in safety. The lustful have no "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God" (Eph 5:5; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). We must renounce the culture of lust, or face the wrath of God (v. 6). That said, God knows our weaknesses and is fully capable of dealing with our sexual failings, provided we acknowledge them as failings and seek His pardon and perfection. This brings us back to where we began. Our problem is not so much that we lust too much, but that our passion for God and His righteousness is too weak.

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This page was last modified on May 7, 2007