Welcome. Today we’re going to take a moment to speak about one of the so-called ‘deadly’ sins: lust. This is a very serious sin, and one that is committed all the time. Guys, and I mean men, if you are listening, we are probably guiltier of it than women are, though they commit lust too.

Lust is the excess thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. This is the more traditional, worldly definition, and fits well, for the most part. We must add this though: (Mat 5:28) But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Things that could be considered lust above and beyond this simple definition are: sexual addiction, adultery, incest, rape, and most disgustingly, bestiality.

Let’s take on Jesus’ example of looking on a woman with lust. When you say to yourself, in your mind, ‘hey I’d go a round with her’ then you have just committed adultery even if you wife is standing beside you, and you are dressed in a snowsuit to where you can barely bend your arms. The sin has been committed. Even if your wife is much more beautiful and you would never physically cheat, Jesus tells us that when we get that feeling and I’m assuming you guys know what I mean, that we are committing a sin.

Look at music for a second here. If that girl that you hate to have leave but love to watch go isn’t your wife, you’re sinning brother. That is not acceptable to God! When you stand a foot taller than some woman you don’t know, and find yourself losing sight of her eyes to take in the *ahem* other views, then you are lusting in your heart, if it isn’t your wife. And even if it is, that’s for the bedroom and the privacy of the marriage chamber.

You take your girl out to the bar with her breasts nearly hanging and her tail looking like her pants were painted on, you are leering in lust at her. Now let me smack you with this: (1Ti 2:9) In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.

Ladies, for a moment; if you go out like that and make men look at you and cause them to lust, you are leading men to sin, away from the commands of the Lord because their focus is on you. You are making men sin. If you are married, then let me say one thing: If you’re not in business, don’t advertise!

Let’s check out the rest of the Bible, and see if we can find any other cases of lust. (Exo 20:17) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Let’s take a moment and look at that word: covet. To desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense. Lust is the excess thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. So clearly lust fits into covet.

(Psa 81:11) But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. (Psa 81:12) So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. The Lord tries to lead us away from sinful behavior when we listen, but He turns us over to our lust which always leads to disaster.

(Pro 6:24) To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. (Pro 6:25) Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. I think what we are getting at here is don’t lust in the heart, or covet having her, as in possessing her, possibly as a girlfriend or similar. Now the eyelids, to me, means not to sexually fantasize about her. You know where you drop your eyes and check some part or another out and get that ‘oooh’ feeling and don’t drop the look until you are either embarrassingly obvious, or the person is out of your line of sight. This is folly too, since it can lead to lusting in the heart!

The sin of lust can lead us to some unnatural situations. Let’s look at (Rom 1:27) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

If you notice here, homosexuality and bisexuality are listed as a ‘burning lust’ for that which they quit using womankind for. Humans are built to reproduce sexually. There is no denying the beauty of how man and woman fit together in the bonds of marriage and love. To make love to your spouse who is the opposite gender is natural.

But as we see in this oft-quoted verse, homosexuality becomes a burning lust that brings the person practicing it away from what is natural, and brings them to that which is unseemly.

(1Jn 2:16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Here we see the truth of the source of lust. It is most decidedly not from God, but instead is of the world. And just exactly who runs this place? (2Co 4:4) In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The god of this world is Old Scratch, Mr. Splitfoot, The Dark One, the Fallen Angel, The tempter of man, The Devil, Satan. (Rom 7:5) For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Before we were saved, we sinned and did things that brought about the fruits of death. Now I’m not saying that sinners are murderers. (Rom 5:12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sin. We see here that we do bring death with sin since it was only first able to enter the world through the sin of Adam. This is why we all die, because we have all sinned. (Rom 6:23) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Gal 5:17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. We are told here that living in the Spirit is against the lusts of the world. The faith struggles with the lust, there is no doubt. It is hard to keep from checking out that hottie down in the third row, or walking by at the mall. But, you just have to learn not to do such things.

It is thought to be so uncommon that there is an ice cream commercial right now that features a man and presumably wife sitting at an outdoor table. One woman who are meant to be very sexy walk by the man’s view, and sweep right past him. His eyes never once leave his wife, and the narrator announces: ‘Give that man an [ice cream]!’ I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about, the brand is pretty famous.

My point is that he behaved like all Christians should, and it was so rare that he is basically given a treat for it. Or at the least, the commercial says he’s earned it.

We should keep our eyes to ourselves because the Lord tells us to, and for no other reason.

But wait! What if you say you just can’t stop looking? That you can’t stop so-called ‘window shopping’? (Mat 6:23) But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

If it is evil, pluck it out! It’s better to go to Heaven missing an eye than it is to go to Hell, isn’t it?

What can come from lust? The first thing is fornication, if both parties lust for each other. Now I use the word fornication to represent premarital sex. Now this is the word the Bible uses, so I believe it to be appropriate.

This is more geared towards things like one night stands and things like that but long term fornication is just as much of a sin. (Act 15:20) But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

(Act 15:29) That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well, Fare ye well. (1Th 4:3) For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.

There’s some verses commanding us to not commit fornication.

Now let’s look a bit at a different angle on the issue. What if one partner is married, or even both partners have spouses? This becomes adultery, and that’s a pretty big no-no in the Bible as well.

Numbers that I’ve seen indicate that adultery is getting to be fairly common. Due to my recent computer troubles I’ve lost the charts I had on the issue, but I believe it was somewhere around 40% of men reporting an affair with only 30% women doing the same. That’s still interesting, for one, there are 10% of people missing, and that is nearly half of the population likely having some form of affair. Cheating seems to be pretty hot nowdays.

We have television shows that are dedicated to infidelity and catching partners in the act. When you can have enough cheating people in one city to run an entire reality show for several seasons, you know that cheating is rampant in our society.

I’ve read recently that many women cheat because men aren’t emotionally available and they feel alone. They will then claim that the new man listens or is a good friend, which leads to sexual intimacy.

This, of course, begs the question of why she married in the first place. If the man was stoic before, what change would likely happen after the service? No, odds are the man was just as a good of listener as the new cheating guy. It’s just that the man may not realize he isn’t talking as much with her.

But by bringing in an extra party, all that can come of it is pain and suffering. If a woman stays with the man she suffers guilt most likely. If she leaves her husband, she likely breaks his heart, possibly keeps the guilt, and if there are kids, seriously messes with their feelings.

There is nothing good about it. All roads lead to failure. Maybe cheater boy falls in love and gets his heart broken. Someone’s going to pay for the sins of the flesh, no matter what.

One group of women complained about the way their husband was ‘romantic’ to be a little proper. How a man was constructed is also a complaint from a smaller group of women. This is putting the lusts of the flesh before the Spirit. You should be moved by his faithfulness, his devotion to the Lord, and his love for the Lord. How a man serves his God tells you how he will serve his wife. The Bible tells him how to handle a wife, that’s what’s important.

And when it comes to the anatomy thing I say this: just grow up.

When it comes to ‘the little things’ talk to your husband, going out and committing adultery is just one of the stupidest ideas a person can have.

(Exo 20:14) Thou shalt not commit adultery. Pretty good idea for the reasons we’ve already talked about. (Pro 6:32) But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. There is volumes of wisdom in this verse. To take of a married woman shows just how much you don’t understand anything. It destroys your soul! They did not have a penance sacrifice against adultery in the Mosaic law. Not only was there no redemption, the punishment was quite severe: (Lev 20:10) And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

(Gal 5:19a) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.

Men often perform adultery because they feel like sexually, they need it. This is not true. Your job as a man is to see to your wife in all things, including that. (Eph 5:25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. Here we are given the example as to how we should love, like Christ loved the church and died for it.

Think about this: (Gen 2:24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. But wait! Adultery brings a splitting off of the adulterer from the one flesh and joins partially to another.

This error leads to a truth: (Mat 6:24) No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. This is the truth. One of them you will hate, or come to not serve, and the other you will love. Usually in these cases it’s the adulterer that the married person clings to, leading to divorce, and all that that entails.

As you can see, the sin of lust is widely talked about in the Bible, and we are strongly warned against it. It is such an easy sin for us to fall into that we must remain always vigilant. (Eph 6:11) Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Believe me, lust is one of the biggest ones he’s using today. From the famous women on television to the women in the grocery store nearly bearing it all, lust looks for us and tries to drive us to sin.

Men: Do not commit fornication nor adultery. Do not get a woman drunk and take advantage of her. Do not seduce your wife’s best friend. Do not think yourself a gift to all women. Do not be half naked on a billboard in your underwear.

Women: If you are not a prostitute, don’t dress like one. Do not wear low cut blouses that expose your breasts. Do not entice men to stare at your body with tight clothing. Do not worry about those appliances that help lift ‘them’ up and put ‘them’ on show. Do not wear pants so tight you have to alter your breathing to put them on. Do not shake your hips in them and tempt men into sinful thoughts. Love God, if you wouldn’t wear it to an appointment with God in Heaven, don’t wear it down here on Earth.

Some might say I have an oppressive view, but let’s not forget (1Ti 2:9a) In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. The Bible supports people not making others sin by thinking of adultery. Men, I believe, are under the same standing order, not to cause a woman to sin through desire for adultery.

Let’s avoid the sin of lust, and let’s do all we can to prevent others from this sin. Let’s bring common decency back to America and our living rooms. I pray this happens soon. I fear that it will just get worse, making vigilance for Christians so much harder. Keep the good fight going, keep your chin up and your mind on the Lord.

Until next time, God bless.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized | . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.