Lust

This morning we're talking about Lust. If you're here for the first time – we're coming to the end of a series looking at the seven deadly sins. We've already looked at Pride, Sloth, Greed, Envy and Wrath. And we've been asking are these sins still deadly? We asked that question because, well, you could almost say that the seven deadly sins define our society, they're not bad, they're a lifestyle, they're our modern way of life.

And of all the seven deadly sins you could probably say lust is the most welcome, the most pervasive, the most influential in our society. Deadly? Not hardly, it's just good fun.

But as we've seen through the last five weeks they were called deadly sins for a reason. They rip us off and leave us empty and they expose us to God's anger. And as we come to the end of the series I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the themes that have emerged across the series. And it's convenient for us that 1 Cor 6 brings those ideas together in the context of the Corinthians' sexual behaviour. So please open that up, it's on page 806 in the blue bibles.

I want to make four points from that passage which summarise the themes we've seen in studying the seven deadly sins. They are: God made all things good for our enjoyment. Sin takes the good things and twists them around to draw us away from God Sin is deceitful, it never fulfils it's promises; and In Jesus God rescues us from the power and consequences of sin So the first point we've learnt in looking at sin is that God made all things good for our enjoyment. Look at 1 Cor 6: 12

Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Paul's probably quoting something the Corinthians have been saying about themselves – everything is permissible for me! Certainly a quick skim through the letter suggests they lived as if they believed it. In Chapter 5 Paul had to tell them not to celebrate a man having an affair with his Father's wife! Here he's telling them not to have sex with prostitutes.

Well they'd misapplied it, but there is a grain of truth in what they're saying. The stomach was made for food – and men and women were made for sex.

In Genesis One we read of God's act of creation – and there is a pattern of repeated phrases that establish the main point. The pattern goes like this:

God said: Let there be… And there was… And God saw that it was good.

When God's almost finished he comes to the highpoint – He creates men and women. At this point the pattern is changed slightly to highlight the climax – men and women are the only part of the creation which is 'made in God's image'; men and women are the only part of the creation described as male and female; and men and women are told to rule.

With the addition of men and women the creation's no longer 'good', it's now 'very good'.

So God made everything just as he wanted it. It was ordered and deliberate, not accidental or haphazard. And it was Good. And in that good creation God made men and women – sexually differentiated beings who were complimentary to each other. God made Adam and Eve male and female, he designed sex into their very being.

Genesis 2 makes it clear that sex is a deliberate part of God's design for men and women made in his image. Eve was made specifically so that Adam could have a mate who was suitable for him. Now don't think that this makes the woman somehow less important than the man, or an after thought. Men and women are both, together, in the image of God, equally important and significant in God's sight. There's no suggestion here of one being greater or more important or significant. The point is that men and women are complimentary to each other in a way that is deliberate and special, and sexual.

God's design was so that Gen 2: 24 'a man will leave his Father and Mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh'. We're talking about sex here. God designed our bodies and he made them sexual for a reason – so we could have sex!

When Jesus was asked about marriage in Mark 10 He quoted Gen 2. He says 'what God has joined together, let man not separate.' So Jesus reconfirms that marriage – and specifically sexual union between a man and woman in marriage – is good; it's God's design and by it God unites the man and woman into one flesh.

It's important that we start here because the word has got around that Christians are against sex, or afraid of it. And we've been quite good at letting people know the times and circumstances when sex isn't right.

But this doesn't come from a low view of sex – we're not afraid of sex, we don't think sex is dirty, and we don't wish people weren't having it. No, it comes from a high view of sex… Sex is one of God's good gifts to us in creation. God made sex deliberately and for a purpose. Sex in God's purposes is good, pleasing to God even; 'very good' God calls it.

So we confirm the truth that stands behind lust. Sex is good. In God's design sex is synonymous with Commitment, intimacy, openness, honesty, love, passion, enjoyment, procreation, recreation. Those are things that we deeply desire.

The ideal of a lifelong relationship that endures and nurtures till death do us part remains incredibly attractive to us, not just Christians, all of us. Why should that be if we're just bundles of cells, just DNA reproducing machines? Surely I'd have a better chance of passing on my DNA if I had thousands of sexual partners. Some people live that way. But thousands of one night stands isn't what we really want. The footballers who get caught try and save their marriage. Because what we want is a deep emotional and physical connection. And you can't get that on a production line, you can't get that if you're just passing through.

And this leads to the second big principle that we've seen over the last 5 weeks – Sin takes the good things and twists them around to draw us away from God. And that's what Lust is, it's distorted, misplaced, sexual desire. Look at 1 Corinthians again:

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.

Sin twists our hearts around so that sex becomes detached from God's good design within marriage and becomes a goal by itself. Lust is how Satan twists sex around to make sex itself something to be pursued, so that we chase sex instead of relationship, and ultimately instead of relationship with God. But it leads us only to more lust, and to guilt and shame and disappointment.

In Corinth lust led some of the Christians to sex with prostitutes! We can just as easily see the issues in our own world. Lust runs rampant and sex is detached from marriage. At the most basic level – when schools teach sex education do you think they teach children that sex is a gift from God within marriage?

Instead sex is associated with all kinds of other things – advertising for instance – sex sells… A good time – that's why sex sells, associate your product with sex and you're associating with good times; but then sex is also associated with Unwanted pregnancies; Note the unwanted… And Sexually Transmitted Diseases – the NHS adverts tell us that sexually transmitted diseases are spreading fast.

But most of all sex is associated with desire – lust.

We're told that we're sexual beings and we have to act out our sexual desires; and we need sex to realise our full potential – to remain a virgin in our society is a tragedy.

But the reality is that lust only ever gives us less than what God designed. This is point three – sin is deceitful, it promises only good, but delivers only a bad imitation of good.

Look at 1 Corinthians 6:12

Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body

– not everything is beneficial, and I will not be mastered by anything.

Lust is deceitful. Lust tells us that sex is best if it doesn't come with the restrictions of marriage. But giving in to lust only produces more lust until we are mastered by our lust – we become slaves to lust.

Our society gives us a very clear illustration of how destructive lust is. Lust has governed thinking about sexual relationships since the 60's.

'Make love not war'. 'Marriage is nothing but a piece of paper'. 'What happens between consenting adults behind bedroom doors is no one else's business'.

And so on and so. Now we teach sex education to 5 year olds. But even so, as the advert says 'sexually transmitted diseases are spreading fast'.

I don't have to tell you the frightening statistics. You know the score. Sex has been cut free from marriage. And sex cut free from marriage hasn't made us healthier, happier and more satisfied as Lust promised us it would. It's left us more lonely and unfulfilled than ever. Ironically people aren't even having more sex, just sex with more people, less frequently and with less satisfaction.

Sin lies to us. It promises the world, but delivers less and less and less. Lust is the classic case – take sexual attraction and cut it free from a loving, committed, life long relationship (marriage) and instead of Nirvana you get pornography. A little giving in to lust leads to a nice feeling. But it doesn't last. And it produces a side effect of more lust. To satisfy more lust you need to do more and more and more and it's a vicious cycle of diminishing returns and increasing demands. And that's true of all sin. Sin makes promises that it can't keep, and instead it delivers us into bondage to more and more sin.

I once came across an article in a Christian Journal for Ministers that my father subscribed to – a minister described how he fell into the habit of watching pornography when he stayed in hotels. And how that led to visits to seedy areas, and eventually to strip clubs and then in the end to visiting a prostitute. It was absolutely shocking. But what was worst of all was that when he finally came to his senses and confessed to another minister hoping for help what he found was that his friend was far further down the road than he was – and when he started researching he found that that was far from unusual.

Lust is the secret sin to end all secret sins. It's brought down the strongest and the best. It's ruined marriages, ripped apart families, destroy ministries, decimated political careers, sporting careers, you name it. Don't think it can't happen to you. Be on your guard.

If you're struggling with lust, or any other sin, take action to bring it out into the light – sin grows in secret and shrivels in the light.

If pornography or sexual temptation are a problem for you tell someone you trust about it today – if you're married tell you wife or husband. Do it as soon as you can. Don't toy with lust.

Practically look for triggers, or patterns – what are the times, or places or situations when you feel temptation most strongly. Can you see why those are particularly difficult? Can you do anything about it – avoid those places, take a friend, tell a friend in advance, get net nanny software or some other safeguard to protect you?

Pray and ask trusted friends to pray for you.

We can't afford to take sin lightly, especially lust because it is so powerful. But there is one more thing that needs to be said, and that's our final point:

In Jesus God rescues us from the power and consequences of sin

NIB 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In Jesus we find forgiveness that releases us from the cycles of temptation and sin and guilt and shame. Sin wants to keep things hidden and secret. But that gives power to our thoughts, to our temptations. The cycle of lust and sin and guilt and shame can be broken. Guilt and shame, if hidden and internalised lead to more of the same and worse. Sin gains a power over us that we can not break.

But Jesus comes to us where we're at and he says I see that sin, I know your guilt and shame, and I've taken it for you. No matter how dirty, how shameful, how disgraceful the sin, I've borne it for you on the cross. All of it. The guilt, the shame, the disgrace – they belong to me now and you can let them go. And so the power of sin is broken.

Of course, temptation is powerful and not to be played with. So when we say Jesus breaks the power of sin we don't expect that we can pray about sin and temptation and desire will pass away. They don't, not as easily as that. Habitual sin is like an addiction – and there may well be whole behaviour patterns, emotional patterns, ways of thinking about ourselves and our lives that need to change. Freedom from sin, especially habitual sin will only ever be hard won – even with God's help. And even when we've dealt with a whole host of issues and developed healthy patterns and good habits and disciplines we remain vulnerable to sin's reach – temptation remains tempting.

But in Christ there's hope for all of us, because there's forgiveness for all of us. So let's pray.