That day in my room I learned about a new sin. The name of that sin is sexual immorality. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28, "You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Looking at a woman, or a picture of a woman for sexual pleasure, or sexual stimulation is a sin. Maybe, it's the biggest sin that men have. God wants men to be pure, completely pure. We know that Jesus was perfect and that he never TOUCHED a woman in a wrong way sexually. But Jesus also never even LOOKED at a woman in a wrong, or dishonorable, way.

God wants men to be sexually pure. That's His standard. He wants us to keep our eyes and our minds and our hearts innocent and pure as we wait for our future wives. Well, okay, so that's our goal. That's our standard. So what's the problem? Why did Jesus talk about looking at a woman lustfully? Jesus knows that men are excited or stimulated or tempted visually. And today, men are constantly, continually tempted to sin sexually with their eyes. Today everywhere you look there are visual, sexual temptations. We have video stores that have pornographic movies right beside the Walt Disney movies. Hollywood movies show love scene after love scene. Subway advertisements show lingerie or women's underwear advertisements. When you walk from here to the new office there's a sign which sometimes have an advertisement for a new pornographic movie. Even on your car people put advertisements with sexy women on them. All around us we have nightclubs and tea houses and prostitution houses. Everywhere you look there are visual temptations. So, instead of keeping ourselves pure, instead of reaching God's standard of holiness in this area we say we are 'just looking'; just a little bit. But 'just looking'often becomes just looking A LOT, on purpose...?it becomes a deadly habit that separates us from God. So, men, we have a problem with our eyes. But it's not our only problem.

We also have a problem with our minds. Today, if you make a decision to stop looking at sexually stimulating pictures you would still have your memory, or hard drive full of images stored in your brain. I can still remember those pictures that I saw from my brother's magazines when I was 11 years old. So, even if you don't look at pornography you can still fantasize... not from a picture in our hand, but from the pictures in our mind; lusting with the eyes of our minds.

So what causes men to be sexually immoral? Is it genetic; passed on to us from our fathers and grandfathers? Is it a sickness, like cancer that grows and grows? Is it just because we are men? Is it a mental illness? Sexual immorality is none of these. Sexual immorality is a bad habit. If it was genetic or like cancer, we would have no hope of defeating our immorality. But, if it's a habit it can be changed. Please listen: If sexual immorality lives like a bad habit it can die like a bad habit.

How do we kill bad habits? First, we have to hate our sin. You cannot win the battle of sexual morality if you don't want to win. You cannot win until you are disgusted with your sin; tired of always losing. If you hate your sin you can defeat your temptation. But If you hold tightly to your sin, your temptation will defeat you!

Secondly, we have to believe that God wants us to have victory over sexual temptation. I Corinthians 10:13 says, (paraphrase) "All temptation is common to man...God will send you a way of escape."

God will send you a way of escape but you have to be looking for the way of escape and willing to take the way of escape. You have to choose to escape.

And third, we need to make a plan to fight our temptation. Is there a man other than Jesus we can look at as an example of sexual purity? Job was a man who was sexually pure. Job had a plan. In Job 31:1 we see that Job was a real man and he made a real commitment to not sin with his eyes.

Job 31:1

"I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl."

Job made a covenant, an agreement or a commitment with his eyes. He promised never to look lustfully at a girl. Notice, it doesn't say he promised never to look at a girl. Job had a plan to be victorious over his sexual temptation. I would like to suggest the following plan so that we can have victory over our sexual temptations.

First, we must learn to bounce our eyes. When we dribble a basketball it bounces. When we see an attractive woman as we are driving down the street or riding on the bus, we need to bounce our eyes away from her immediately. (Advertisement on subway, porn movie ad.). Men seem to have a radar that is constantly looking for visual stimulation. Bouncing our eyes instead of looking will become a habit the more you practice it.

Second, we need to memorize Scripture as Mr. Nicholes mentioned yesterday. I would recommend Job 31:1 and I Corinthians 6:18-20. When you are tempted sexually, you bounce your eyes and then you immediately think of Job; "I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl." That's your sword...Ghhh. Now, your shield; "Flee from sexual immorality...You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body"...Bang!

Third, study your weaknesses. Do you stay up late at night watching movies that have sexy scenes in them. Do yougo to the movie theater and hope there are sex scenes in the movies you watch? Are you tempted by magazines or pictures lying around your house? Are you always fantasizing about women when you ride on the subway or bus? When you know your weaknesses you can practice putting off and putting on.

There are only 2 ways for sexual temptations to get inside of you; the eyes and the mind. Stop putting the images in your mind and start putting healthy, holy honorable images in your mind. Build healthy relationships with your Christian sisters. You know, the world says a real man is one who has a lot of sexual experience. But actually, a real man is a man who hears the word of God and obeys it. The word of God says to make a commitment with your eyes not to look lustfully at a woman. The word of God says to flee immorality and honor God with your body. What kind of a man are you going to be? What kind of a man are you going to tell your future wife you were before you met her? Why not be a real man of God with pure eyes and a pure heart and a pure mind as you wait for your future wife?

by Denny Smith
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