November 2021 - Make No Provision

What to Say When Tempted Sexually | Philippians 4:13

by Alan Sharpe November 30, 2021 Leave a Comment

In the midst of your seeming addiction to pornography, in the face of your seeming powerlessness over your sexual sin, you have this promise: you can do all things through Christ.

by Alan Sharpe November 30, 2021 Leave a Comment

To Quit Porn, Find Your Big Why | 1 Kings 18:21

If you want to conquer pornography, sexual lust, sexual immorality or masturbation in your life, use the Scriptures. First, memorize a pertinent Scripture. Then, when tempted to sin, recite that Scripture from memory. Scripture memorization, after all, is one way to prevent yourself from sinning against God (Psalm 101:3-4). One verse that you should commit to memory is found in the New Testament book of Philippians:

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

Sexual sins are sins of defeat. They are appealing at first, and pleasurable for a season (or even a few minutes), but they leave you defeated afterwards. And yet the urge to return to sexual sin is great. Some folks even call it an addiction. Being in the grip of compulsive, habitual, sexual sin is like being in an

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Prevention

Put Lust to Death | Colossians 3:5

by Alan Sharpe November 29, 2021 Leave a Comment

Defeat wicked sexual thoughts and desires by changing the subject. You win the battle against sexual immorality in your mind.

by Alan Sharpe November 29, 2021 Leave a Comment

Have you ever been sitting in church when a wicked, sexual thought suddenly entered your mind? You likely felt defeated, wondering if there is nowhere you can go to escape from sexual immorality. You may think your problem is external, since you live in a sexualized world where provocative images are in plain view everywhere you look. But moving to a cave won’t help. You must win the war against pornography and sexual immorality in your mind.

You discover this truth in the New Testament book of Colossians, the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a group of believers in the city of Colosse. The Christian men in that church almost 2,000 years ago faced the same battle you face today. Paul wrote to them:

“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
Colossians 3:5

When Paul talks about “your members which are on th

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Sanctification

“He will make you able to conquer the evil habit.” || Charles Spurgeon

by Alan Sharpe November 28, 2021 Leave a Comment

The Lord Jesus is great at making the lame man to leap like a hart, and in enabling those who are sick of the palsy to take up their bed and walk.

by Alan Sharpe November 28, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you are anxious to give up every evil way, our Lord Jesus will enable you to do so at once. His grace has already changed the direction of your desires: in fact, your heart is renewed. Therefore, rest on him to strengthen you to battle with temptations as they arise, and to fulfil the Lord’s commands from day to day. The Lord Jesus is great at making the lame man to leap like a hart, and in enabling those who are sick of the palsy to take up their bed and walk. He will make you able to conquer the evil habit.

He will even cast the devil out of you. Yes, if you had seven devils, he could drive them out at once; there is no limit to his power to cleanse and sanctify. Now that you are willing to be made whole, the great difficulty is removed. He that has set the will right can arrange all your other powers, and make them move to his praise. You would not have earnestly desired to quit all sin if he had not secretly inclined you in that direction. If you now trust him, it will be clear that he has begun a good work in you, and we feel assured that he will carry it on.

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Accountability

What’s Your Instrument of Unrighteousness? | Romans 6:13

by Alan Sharpe November 27, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you want to quit porn, take control of your body parts. Stop offering them as instruments of wickedness.

by Alan Sharpe November 27, 2021 Leave a Comment

Who Else is in Your Cell? | 1 Timothy 1:8-11

Yes, the sin of watching pornography involves your eyes. But it involves other body parts, too, doesn’t it? I don’t have to name them. If you struggle with sexual immorality, you know that the temptation often starts with your eyes, but you consummate the sin with other parts of your body.

The Bible calls the parts of your body your “members.” And God has specific instructions on what you are to do, and not to do, with your members. Open your Bible to the New Testament, find the book of Romans, and turn to chapter 6, verse 13:

“And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Romans 6:13

This word “members” in the original language of the New Testament mean

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Lust

Are You Loyal to Lust? | Romans 6:12

by Alan Sharpe November 26, 2021 Leave a Comment

Sin once had power over you. Now you have power over sin. Lust is something you are allowed to be disloyal to. You are allowed to disobey sexual temptation. So go ahead: disobey.

by Alan Sharpe November 26, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you struggle with the sin of watching pornography, you may wonder why it has such a grip on you. You likely can’t figure out why you keep giving in to it, going back to it, even when you know that pornography is pleasant for a moment, but afterwards leaves you feeling dirty, ashamed, deceitful and defeated.

You feel this way because you have allowed pornography to become sovereign in your life. You have let it give the orders and call the shots. You have allowed sexual immorality to become king. You discover this when you read the book of Romans. The Apostle Paul tells you that, if you as a believer have died with Christ, been buried with Him, and been raised from the dead with Christ, you are to walk in newness of life. Then Paul says:

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”
Romans 6:12

Before you were saved, sin was sovereign in your life. It reigned over y

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Prevention

To Quit Porn, Hide Scripture (Not Your Sin) | Psalm 119:11

by Alan Sharpe November 25, 2021 Leave a Comment

David found passages in the Scriptures where God commanded him to do something, or to not do something, and he memorized those holy commandments. Do likewise.

by Alan Sharpe November 25, 2021 Leave a Comment

To quit porn, hide God's word in your heart. Psalm 119:11

If you want to learn how to get victory over pornography and sexual immorality, ask a brother in the Lord who has been there, done that, and won the victory. Ask someone like King David. David wrote a large portion of the Psalms. In one of those psalms, he declares one practical step that he took to prevent himself from transgressing God’s commandments. You find his declaration in Psalm 119:

“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”
Psalm 119:11

David is speaking to God. When he refers to “Your word,” he means God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures, particularly the law. Start at the end of the verse and you see that David had set a goal in his life. Notice that David didn’t simply want to avoid sinning. He wanted to avoid sinning “against You,” against his God.

So what did David do with his goal? Put it on a sticky note and pin it by his bathroom mirror? Start each day with an affirmatio

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Sanctification

“Christian life is warfare. The quicker we find out, the better.” || D. L. Moody

by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

A good many Christian people make this mistake: they think the battle is already fought and won. They have an idea that all they have to do is to put the oars down in the bottom of the boat, and the current will drift them into the ocean of God’s eternal love.

by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

I wouldn’t think of talking to unconverted men about overcoming the world, for it is utterly impossible. They might as well try to cut down the American forest with their penknives. But a good many Christian people make this mistake: they think the battle is already fought and won. They have an idea that all they have to do is to put the oars down in the bottom of the boat, and the current will drift them into the ocean of God’s eternal love. But we have to cross the current. We have to learn how to watch and fight, and how to overcome.

The battle is only just commenced. The Christian life is a conflict and a warfare, and the quicker we find it out, the better. There is not a blessing in this world that God has not linked Himself to. All the great and higher blessings God associates with Himself. When God and man work together, then it is that there is going to be victory. We are coworkers with Him. You might take a mill, and put it forty feet above a river, and there isn’t capital enough in the States to make that river turn the mill; but get it down about for

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Temptation

To Defeat Porn, Make Bible Promises Personal | 1 Corinthians 10:13

by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

The promises in the New Testament that are for all believers in this age are also for you as an individual. So claim them as your own. See what happens.

by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

Overcome temptation by making Bible promises personal.

If you want to put the sins of pornography and sexual immorality behind you, take the promises of God that you find in the New Testament, and make them personal. Find the passages that promise victory over sin to believers in general, and apply them to you in particular.

For example, if your primary battle is with the temptation to look at pornography, then find a promise in the New Testament where God tells Christians how they are to get victory over temptation. Consider the tenth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, for instance, where the Apostle Paul writes:

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13

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Temptation

Victory Over Pornography is Always Within Reach | 1 Corinthians 10:13

by Alan Sharpe November 23, 2021 Leave a Comment

Every time you are tempted to sin sexually, God always makes the way of escape. Every time. Always. But you must grab it.

by Alan Sharpe November 23, 2021 Leave a Comment

Vidtory over porn always within reach | 1 Corinthians 10:13

Imagine for a moment that you are drowning. I am walking along the promenade and see you in the water, thrashing about and screaming for me to save you. Hanging on the sea wall is a life preserver. I remove it, unfurl the rope, and hurl the life preserver into the water beside you. You see the life preserver. But you ignore it and continue thrashing about, screaming for me to save you. I scream back at you, “Grab the life preserver!” But you decline. You refuse my help. You drown.

If you are struggling with pornography, you may feel as though you are drowning in your sin. Pornography is so all-consuming, so seemingly addictive and powerful that you have no way to resist it. Your situation appears hopeless. But do you not know that God always throws you a life preserver in the midst of your temptations? Read 1 Corinthians chapter 10:

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will no

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will no
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Temptation

Your Guaranteed Escape from Pornography | 1 Corinthians 10:13

by Alan Sharpe November 22, 2021 Leave a Comment

Every time you are tempted to look at pornography, God provides the way of escape you need in that moment. But you must take it.

by Alan Sharpe November 22, 2021 Leave a Comment

Proven Escape from Pornography. | 1 Co 10:13

You are not addicted to pornography. You may view it compulsively. It may have a destructive grip on your life. But you don’t have to view it. You are not powerless in its presence. You know this already.

First, you know that, given the right disincentive or the right incentive, you will not look at pornography. As John Piper says, “if the stakes are high enough and sure enough, you will have all the self-control you need to conquer any sexual temptation.” If a terrorist walks in while you are about to look at porn and threatens to slit your throat if you do, you will have all the self-control you need to not look. You are not addicted. Or, in the same situation, if someone walks in with a briefcase containing $1 million in exchange for you not looking at porn, you will not look. You will have self-control. You are not addicted.

Second, you know you are not addict

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Sanctification

“Welcome any trials that teach us what we are.” || Madam Guyon

by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

Let us welcome any trials that teach us what we are, and lead us to renounce ourselves and find our all in God

by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

All the graces of the Christian spring from the death of self. Let us, then, bear patiently the afflictions, which reduce this overflowing life. There is a suffering in connection with confusions and uncertainties, very trying to bear. Unbounded patience is necessary to bear not only with ourselves, but with others, whose various tempers and dispositions are not congenial with our own.

“Offences,”—wounds of spirit will occur while we live in the flesh. These offences must be borne in silence, and thus subjugated and controlled by the spirit of grace. By a law of our nature we feel, more or less, the influence of the spheres in which we move. While we honor, we think, the true cross, the affliction that comes from God, let us remember that these instruments, so disagreeable, are the true cross that providence daily furnishes us.

Do not sully the cross and mar its operations by your murmurs and reflections. Let us welcome any trials that teach us what we are, and lead us to renounce ourselves and find our all in Go

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Temptation

Flee Sexual Immorality | 1 Corinthians 6:18

by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

The proven, biblical way to defeat pornography, avoid sex outside of marriage, and conquer other forms of sexual immorality isn’t to fight or resist or pray. You must flee.

by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment

Are you looking for a proven way to quit pornography? Would you like to know a tactic that your Christian brothers have been using for almost 2,000 years to defeat lust, a tactic that still works today? If God has spoken on this topic, do you want to hear what He has to say?

Then open your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Corinthians. Here you find the remedy for avoiding pornography summed up in one word: flee.

“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18

If you want to defeat pornography in your life, flee. If you need to conquer masturbation, flee. If you want to avoid having sex with your girlfriend or fiancé until you are married, flee.

The phrase “sexual immorality” in this passage is the Greek word porneian, which comes from <

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Obedience

You Are Not a Porn Addict. You’re a Volunteer. | Romans 6:13

by Alan Sharpe November 18, 2021 Leave a Comment

You are not addicted to porn or masturbation. You offer yourself willingly to these things. Victory comes through obedience to Scripture and faith in Christ, not through therapy or a 12-step recovery program.

by Alan Sharpe November 18, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you are guilty of habitual sexual sin, you may call yourself an addict. You consider yourself powerless over your sex addiction, as a drug addict is powerless over heroin and an alcoholic is powerless over Jack Daniels. Pornography is your “drug of choice.” You require therapy and a 12-step recovery program. Quitting pornography means “going clean,” or “getting sober.” Looking at pornography and masturbating isn’t sin. It’s just a relapse.

But when you read the New Testament, you never find sexual sin described as a narcotic, or lusting after women called an addiction. Instead, the writers of the New Testament describe sexual immorality as voluntary, something you do with your free will. Something you can conquer through obedience and faith. Consider the letter to the Romans, chapter six, in which Paul writes:

“Do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive

“Do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive
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Sanctification

Crucified Men Don’t Watch Pornography | Romans 6:6

by Alan Sharpe November 17, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you want to get the victory over pornography, masturbation or another sexual sin today, look back to yourself crucified with Christ. Crucified men don’t commit sexual immorality.

by Alan Sharpe November 17, 2021 Leave a Comment

Struggling to Quit Porn? Where is Your Limp? | Matthew 18:8

Something happened in human history to prevent you from looking at pornography. Jesus Christ died on the cross. And you, if you are saved from your sins by faith in His atoning sacrifice, were also crucified with Him. That is, your sinful nature was crucified with Christ when you repented of your sins and trusted in Christ as your Saviour.

You read about this marvelous transaction in a few places in the New Testament. One of them is in the sixth chapter of the book of Romans. Here, Paul the Apostle says:

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
Romans 6:5-6

You have likely seen dozens of depictions of the crucifixion

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Lust

“Our Lord cares for the ‘broken pieces’ of your life.” || Amy Carmichael

by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Jesus will not let even the least of our little broken things be lost.

by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Matthew 14:19-20

Have you ever felt at the end of the day that you had nothing to offer but ‘broken pieces’ of things? In the morning we put our day in the Lord’s hands. Then we began to do His work, but we were not able to do nearly as much as we had hoped. Interruptions came and broke up our plans, and the evening finds us a little disappointed. ‘I hoped to do so much, and I have done nothing worth bringing to Thee’—and that is how we feel.

I have been finding new comfort in the two words, which are used by the four evangelists in telling the end of the story of the feeding of the Five Thousand. They speak of ‘broken pieces’, and the

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Obedience

Don’t Expect Grace to Cover Your Habitual Sexual Sin | Romans 6:1-2

by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Do you habitually watch porn because you believe your account has been paid in advance, and that you can now have whatever you want in the store without paying? Paul has some bad news for you.

by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

Do you continue to watch pornography because you believe in cheap grace? Do you think, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, that the essence of God’s grace is that your account has been paid in advance, and that you can now have whatever you want in the store without paying? Do you believe that, because the cost of God’s grace is infinite, the possibilities for you to use it and spend it are equally infinite?

In other words, do you believe that your sins of sexual immorality

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Obedience

Heaven with a Flip Phone or Hell with a Smartphone. Your Choice. | Mark 9:47-48

by Alan Sharpe November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment

If your smartphone causes you to sin, why have you not plucked it out of your life? Why have you not replaced it with a dumb phone, a feature phone or a retro flip phone that cannot access the internet? Why are you not obeying Jesus?

by Alan Sharpe November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment

Jesus teaches that avoiding sins that start with your eyes requires you to take drastic and permanent measures. If you look at women to lust after them, for example, you commit adultery. Jesus says the way to prevent this sin is to tackle it at the source—your eyes:

“And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—where “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”
Mark 9:47-48

Jesus is not saying that you should literally pluck out your eye. He is telling you that you must remove from your life anything that causes you to sin. For example, if you are old school and still have so-called adult magazines kicking around your garage, and if those magazines cause you to sin (their primary purpose, after all), get rid of the magazines. If you can’t watch soaps, sitcoms and movies wit

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Prevention

Serious About Quitting Porn? Where is Your Vow? | Psalm 101:3

by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

David vowed to God to never put anything wicked before his eyes. You can do the same thing if you are serious about forsaking pornography.

by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

little man reading a big empty book, surreal concept

If you are a Christian man who is also married, you have likely made only one vow in your life. And that is the vow you made on your wedding day to your wife. You faced her at the altar, before God and a few other witnesses, and said something like this:

“I, [NAME], take thee, [NAME], to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my troth.”

If you find yourself breaking your wedding vow these days by lusting after women you see in movies and magazines, and on websites and apps, you may be ready to make another vow. A vow that helps you break free from the bondage of habitual sexual sin. This is what King David did.

You find David’s vow recorded in Psalm 101, a psalm tha

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Sanctification

“The Spirit dwelling in you is no mere influence.” || Watchman Nee

by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person; He is very God.

by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment

big jump to reach the top, success concept

Do you know, my friends, that the Spirit within you is very God? Oh that our eyes were opened to see the greatness of God’s gift! Oh that we might realize the vastness of the resources secreted in our own hearts! I could shout with joy as I think, “The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person; He is very God. The infinite God is within my heart!” I am at a loss to convey to you the blessedness of this discovery, that the Holy Spirit dwelling within my heart is a Person.

Excerpted from The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee. Public domain.

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Obedience

Quitting Free Porn Will Cost You Plenty if You Quit Biblically | Matthew 5:27-29

by Alan Sharpe November 13, 2021 Leave a Comment

The sure way to quit watching pornography is to quit biblically, starting with obedience to the explicit commands of Jesus. Just prepare yourself for the consequences. Your obedience will cost you plenty.

by Alan Sharpe November 13, 2021 Leave a Comment

The irony of pornography is that you can watch it for free but you have to pay dearly in order to stop watching. Getting out of the grip of pornography takes effort, and comes at a price that many Christian men seem unwilling to pay. I present as Exhibit A the clear command of Jesus on the subject of lusting at women with your eyes. Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29

If you want to be free from your bondage to pornography, you must pluck out your right eye and cast it from you. In other words, you must rid yourself of anything valuable and

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Consecration

“The way to trust Christ is to know Christ.” || Henry Drummond

by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment

The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting Him then. You are changed.

by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment

The only way of learning what faith is is to know Christ and be in His company. You hear sermons about the nine different kinds of faith—distinctions drawn between the right kind of faith and the wrong—and sermons telling you how to get faith. So far as I can see, there is only one way in which faith is got, and it is the same in the religious world as it is in the world of men and women.

I learn to trust you, my brother, just as I get to know you, and neither more nor less; and you get to trust me just as you get to know me. I do not trust you as a stranger, but as I come into contact with you, and watch you, and live with you, I find out that you are trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to you, and to lean upon you. But I do not do that to a stranger.

The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting Him then. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you, as cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands do, is not faith, but credulity. I believe a

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Prevention

To Defeat Porn, Pluck Out Your Right Eye. Then Cast it Away. | Matthew 5:27-29

by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment

Avoiding the cause of temptation in the moment is not enough if that person, place or thing causes you to sin again. You must pluck it out when tempted, then cast it from you so that it never tempts you again.

by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment

If you struggle with the sin of watching pornography, Jesus has a remedy for you that is doubly difficult—but effective. You learn of this remedy in the Gospel of Matthew, the fifth chapter, in the passage that recounts the sermon that Jesus delivered to a multitude gathered on a hillside in Galilee.

This is what Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29

Notice the double remedy for eliminating the temptation to sin by lusting with your eyes: (1) pluck out your right eye, and (2) cast it from

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Obedience
Forsake Your Porn Habit or be Cast Into Hell. Period. | Matthew 5:27-29

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by Alan Sharpe November 11, 2021 Leave a Comment on Forsake Your Porn Habit or be Cast Into Hell. Period. | Matthew 5:27-29

If you refuse to forsake pornography while you have the chance, you will spend eternity in hell. This is not open to debate or misunderstanding. Jesus is clear on the subject.

by Alan Sharpe November 11, 2021 Leave a Comment on Forsake Your Porn Habit or be Cast Into Hell. Period. | Matthew 5:27-29

Illustration of man vanishing in a dark black smoke, surreal emotional anger concept

Do you feel shame and regret after watching pornography? Good. Those feelings prove you still have a working conscience. God uses your conscience to warn you that watching pornography is sin. And to warn you that this sin has consequences in the life to come if you won’t repent.

If you refuse to forsake porn while you have the chance, you will spend eternity in hell. This isn’t in doubt. This isn’t open to debate. Just read the Gospel of Matthew, chapter five, to find your proof. Here you find Jesus’ teaching on this subject:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29
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Illustration of man vanishing in a dark black smoke, surreal emotional anger concept

Prevention
How to Pluck Out Your Right Eye to Overcome Porn | Matthew 5:27-29

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by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on How to Pluck Out Your Right Eye to Overcome Porn | Matthew 5:27-29

Obeying Jesus means plucking out anything of value in your life that causes you to watch pornography. This will hurt. A lot. But the effort is worth it when your soul is at stake.

by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on How to Pluck Out Your Right Eye to Overcome Porn | Matthew 5:27-29

Winning the battle against pornography requires drastic, costly action. You must attack the enemy at the source. And that means making many sacrifices in your life that put you out of step with the majority of Christian men. But no matter. Your eternal destiny is at stake. So get moving.

I am referring, of course, to the clear teaching of Jesus about what you must do to conquer sexual sin that involves your eyes. Here is what Jesus commands you:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
Matthew 5:27-29

In practical terms, obe
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Prevention
Conquering Porn Requires Drastic Action | Matthew 5:27-29

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by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on Conquering Porn Requires Drastic Action | Matthew 5:27-29

Conquering pornography requires drastic action that costs you something. Obeying the clear command of Jesus means cutting off anything of value in your life that causes you to sin sexually.

by Alan Sharpe November 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on Conquering Porn Requires Drastic Action | Matthew 5:27-29

If you are a Christian man who wants to conquer a compulsion to watch pornography, and if you have been struggling for some time without success, your problem might be that you aren’t obeying a clear command of Jesus on this issue.

Jesus doesn’t teach explicitly about pornography, of course, but He does teach about how to win the battle with sins that involve your eyes. And that includes the sin of looking at pornographic images and videos. You find this teaching in a few places in the New Testament, in the passages in the Gospels that recount Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Here is what Jesus teaches, as recorded by His disciple Matthew:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members
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Consecration
“We cannot know God if we use prayer like a telephone.” || E. M. Bounds

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by Alan Sharpe November 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on “We cannot know God if we use prayer like a telephone.” || E. M. Bounds

Intimacy requires development. We can never know God as it is our privilege to know Him, by brief and fragmentary and unconsidered repetitions of intercessions that are requests for personal favours and nothing more.

by Alan Sharpe November 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on “We cannot know God if we use prayer like a telephone.” || E. M. Bounds

And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
Luke 18:1

“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” The words are the words of our Lord, who not only ever sought to impress upon His followers the urgency and the importance of prayer, but set them an example which they alas! have been far too slow to copy.

The always speaks for itself. Prayer is not a meaningless function or duty to be crowded into the busy or the weary ends of the day, and we are not obeying our Lord’s command when we content ourselves with a few minutes upon our knees in the morning rush or late at night when the faculties, tired with the tasks of the day, call out for rest. God is always within call, it is true; His ear is ever attentive to the cry of His child, but we can never get to know Him if we use the vehicle of prayer as we use the telephone—for a few words of hurried conversation.
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Lust
At a Hotel or in Your Heart, It’s Still Adultery | Matthew 5:27-28

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by Alan Sharpe November 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on At a Hotel or in Your Heart, It’s Still Adultery | Matthew 5:27-28

When you lust after a woman with your eyes, when you watch pornography, you commit adultery with a person, not an abstraction. You commit adultery with someone in particular, a woman you can describe in intimate detail. Where this happens is irrelevant.

by Alan Sharpe November 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on At a Hotel or in Your Heart, It’s Still Adultery | Matthew 5:27-28

Will you commit adultery today? The thought may shock you, but only because you haven’t thought hard enough about what Jesus teaches about looking at women and lusting after them. Or because you have thought about what Jesus says, but think he means something else.

I am referring, of course, to the teaching that Jesus gives on a hillside in Galilee, a teaching that we know as The Sermon on the Mount. This is what Jesus teaches:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 5:27-28

If you are like many of your brothers in Christ, you think that Jesus is teaching that looking at a woman to lust for her means you commit adultery only in your heart, that you don’t actually commit adultery. You think that look
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Lust
Conquer Your Lust by Conquering Your Triggers | Job 31:1

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by Alan Sharpe November 7, 2021 Leave a Comment on Conquer Your Lust by Conquering Your Triggers | Job 31:1

The way to win the war against sexual sin is to win the battle with your eyes. And the proven, biblical way to win that battle is to never pull the trigger. Make a covenant with your eyes today. And keep it.

by Alan Sharpe November 7, 2021 Leave a Comment on Conquer Your Lust by Conquering Your Triggers | Job 31:1

On June 28, 1914, a Serbian terrorist shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The assassination gave hardliners in Austria-Hungary the pretext they needed to declare war against Serbia. Which led Russia to declare war against Austria-Hungary. And Germany to declare war against Russia. And France and Great Britain to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started a chain of events that took the lives of 16 million soldiers and civilians. All of the death, destruction and heartache of WW I can be traced back to that pull of a trigger in a side street in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Are you a Christian man struggling with sexual sin? You will never conquer your sin until you conquer your triggers. After all, sexual sin isn’t an act as much as a process that ends in an act. The act is always preceded by a process, and that process is always preceded by a trigger. That trigger is usually something (or, to be more exact, usually someone) you see.

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Temptation
Serious About Quitting Porn? Where Is Your Covenant? | Job 31:1

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by Alan Sharpe November 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on Serious About Quitting Porn? Where Is Your Covenant? | Job 31:1

If you are serious about quitting porn, make a covenant with your eyes. And while you’re at it, make a covenant with your phone, computer and TV, and anything else that tempts you to sin sexually. For men, sexual sin typically starts with the eyes. So make a covenant with your eyes. Do it now. And then keep that covenant.

by Alan Sharpe November 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on Serious About Quitting Porn? Where Is Your Covenant? | Job 31:1

You prove you are serious about higher education by earning a post-graduate degree. You demonstrate your commitment to your field by maintaining a professional certification. And you demonstrate your commitment to a woman with a marriage license (and a marriage, of course).

But what about your commitment to quitting porn? How do you prove to yourself, to your wife or girlfriend, to God, that you are serious about gaining victory over your habitual sexual sin? With a covenant. A covenant with your eyes.

A covenant is a solemn, binding agreement that defines the relationship between two individuals. A covenant always has a stipulated goal to do, or not do, something. And a covenant has consequences. There are blessings if both people keep the covenant, and there are penalties if one person breaks the covenant.

You read in the Old Testament about a man called Job who was tempted by his eyes to sin. This is what he did about it, in his own words:
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Accountability
Your Problem Isn’t Porn. Just Look at the Reflection on Your Screen. | Job 31:1

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by Alan Sharpe November 5, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Problem Isn’t Porn. Just Look at the Reflection on Your Screen. | Job 31:1

If you want to conquer habitual sexual sin, learn this vital lesson from the life of Job. Admit that you are the man in the monitor, the man responsible for looking at porn. Then act. You are the man who must confess your sin, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness.

by Alan Sharpe November 5, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Problem Isn’t Porn. Just Look at the Reflection on Your Screen. | Job 31:1

Pornography is so pervasive and so powerful that you may blame others for your sin. You blame the neighbor or relative who introduced you to porn as a boy. You blame the pornographers for making their product so readily available. Or the women at your work who dress so immodestly. Or the brands that use female nudity to pitch their products on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

But if you want to blame anyone for your habitual sexual sin, just look for the reflection of the man on your smartphone screen or computer display. He’s the one responsible for your predicament. No one else.

Job knew this. This father, husband and businessman lived in the land of Uz (modern–day southwestern Jordan and southern Israel) around 1520 B.C. Despite his immense wealth and reputation for being a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil, Job was tempted to look lustfully at young women. You
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Sanctification
“A tree grows only on the root from which it sprang.” || Andrew Murray

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by Alan Sharpe November 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on “A tree grows only on the root from which it sprang.” || Andrew Murray

We need to know well the Second Adam and His power to give within us a life of humility as real and abiding and overmastering as has been that of pride.

by Alan Sharpe November 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on “A tree grows only on the root from which it sprang.” || Andrew Murray

No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. The power that Satan brought from hell, and cast into man’s life, is working daily, hourly, with mighty power throughout the world. Men suffer from it; they fear and fight and flee it; and yet they know not whence it comes, whence it has its terrible supremacy. No wonder they do not know where or how it is to be overcome.

Pride has its root and strength in a terrible spiritual power, outside of us as well as within us; as needful as it is that we confess and deplore it as our very own, is to know it in its Satanic origin. If this leads us to utter despair of ever conquering or casting it out, it will lead us all the sooner to that supernatural power in which alone our deliverance is to be found—the redemption of the Lamb of God. The hopeless struggle against the workings of self and pride within us may indeed become still more hopeless as we think of the power of darkness behind it all; the utter despair will fit us the better for realizing and accepting a power and a life outside o
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Lust
Want to Quit Porn? Have You Considered Job? | Job 31:1

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by Alan Sharpe November 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Quit Porn? Have You Considered Job? | Job 31:1

Getting what you want in life does not deliver you from temptation. And advancing in holiness does not automatically shield you from lust. Job is proof that your struggle against lustful thoughts and sinful images is something you share with men the world over. The only difference is what you do with your lust.

by Alan Sharpe November 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Quit Porn? Have You Considered Job? | Job 31:1

Lust is a solitary sin. When you look at pornography, you do so alone. When you act upon your lustful thoughts by pleasuring yourself, you do so in private. The shame and remorse that follow your sin make you feel even more alone, as though there is no one else in the world who struggles with sexual sin the way that you do. But have you considered Job?

Job was a man who lived in the land of Uz around 1520 BC. The book in the Bible named after him tells you that Job was married with 10 children. He was a wealthy man, owning 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household of servants. Job was so wealthy that the Scriptures describe him as “the greatest of all the people of the East” (Job 1:3).

Job was also a righteous man. God remarks of him, to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8).
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