April 2022 - Make No Provision

Faith

“What an awful theory that makes a sinner think he’s saved.” || Catherine Booth

by Alan Sharpe April 30, 2022

May God save you from any such mock salvation as this.

by Alan Sharpe April 30, 2022

A man is either under the dominion of sin, or else he is delivered from it. If he is under the dominion of sin, what an awful theory is that which makes him believe he is saved. Could the devil have invented a more damning theory than that? And yet, alas! Alas! He allures millions to destruction through it, who otherwise would take alarm and begin to seek salvation. He says to all the qualms of conscience and the pangs of remorse, “You are all right, you believe this or the other, your faith is orthodox, you are safe,” frequently quoting separated or mutilated texts to back up his lying insinuations, such as “By faith ye are saved;” “he that believeth shall be saved,” “you are complete in Him,” etc.

This latter phrase has come to express, in numbers of instances, the most utter ruin to which the human soul can be brought. “Complete in Christ”–complete without any true repentance, without any offering of the heart, without the slightest change inward or outward “complete in Him,” while living without Him, and having no conscious connection with Him whatever; complete

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Consequences

You, Porn, and the First Temptation | Genesis 3:4

by Alan Sharpe April 29, 2022

The Bible warns that you can fall away in unbelief and become severed from your saving union with God through Christ. Heed the warnings. Don’t believe the lie.

by Alan Sharpe April 29, 2022

“Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.'”
Genesis 3:4

If you are a Christian man struggling to conquer your habitual sin of watching pornography, your problem may be that you believe the same lie that Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden. The lie that Eve believed. The lie that she and Adam acted upon. The lie that brought death—physical and spiritual—upon them and all mankind.

Satan whispers this same lie to you whenever you are tempted to look at pornography or masturbate. You know that these sins are wrong, but Satan tells you otherwise.

God says if you are sexually immoral, you will be cast into hell (Matthew 5:27-30). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
God says if you are sexually immoral, you will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Satan says, “you will not surely die.”
God says you must abstain from sexual immorality or fa
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Prevention

10 Steps I Take to Abstain from Pornography Daily, Biblically

by Alan Sharpe April 28, 2022

I eventually got 24 hours of freedom from porn and masturbation. That turned into a week. Then a month. Then multiple months. You can, too.

by Alan Sharpe April 28, 2022

I looked at pornography for the first time at age 11 and for the last time at age 61. November 2021 is when I got serious about kicking my filthy habit and forsaking my wicked sin. Gaining victory in this area of my life required 10 painful steps. Your results may vary, but if you take these 10 steps you may gain victory as well. Here they are.

I confessed my sin to my wife and begged for her forgiveness. I admitted to her that my repeated viewing of porn was repeated adultery against her.
I got rid of all outright pornography and everything even borderline inappropriate from my office and home, including anything found on my PC, laptop and other electronic devices.
I installed porn-blocking and accountability software (Covenant Eyes) on all my electronic devices: work desktop, work laptop, tablet, phone. It takes screenshots of my activity and emails them to my accountability partner daily.

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Sanctification

“Our error is we don’t expect a converted man to be a transformed man.” || A. W. Tozer

by Alan Sharpe April 26, 2022

A revival is among other things a return to the belief that real faith invariably produces holiness of heart and righteousness of life.

by Alan Sharpe April 26, 2022

A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to “accept” Christ without forsaking the world. But what saith the Holy Ghost? “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4), and “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15) . This requires no comment, only obedience.

We may also erroneously assume that we can experience justification without transformation. Justification and regeneration are not the same; they may be thought apart in theology but they can never be experienced apart in fact. When God declares a man righteous He instantly sets about to make him righteous. Our error today is that we do not expect a converted man to be a transformed man, and as a result of this error our churches are full of substandard Christians. A revival is among other things a return to the belief that real faith invariably produces holiness of heart and righteousness of life.

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Consecration

“You know what absolute surrender is.” || Andrew Murray

by Alan Sharpe April 22, 2022

Absolute surrender. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.

by Alan Sharpe April 22, 2022

Illustration of man waving big white flag, surreal abstract concept

God has created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, and the trees, and the grass; and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God? Do they not allow God to work in them just what He pleases? When God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as He works in its beauty? And God’s redeemed children, oh, can you think that God can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered? God cannot do it. God is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him; but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God. And now He comes, and as God, He claims it.

You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with i

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Prevention

How to Quit Porn Biblically

by Alan Sharpe April 19, 2022

Pornography is a sin issue. And sin issues require biblical remedies. If you want to learn how to quit porn, learn what the Bible says on the topic. Then obey what you read.

by Alan Sharpe April 19, 2022

“This is the noose Satan uses to strangle sinners.” || Martin Luther

by Alan Sharpe April 18, 2022

This is the noose which Satan throws over the head of the poor child of man in order to strangle him.

by Alan Sharpe April 18, 2022

By the temptation of faith is meant that the evil conscience drives out of a person his confidence in the pardoning grace of God, and leads him to imagine that God is angry and wishes the death of the sinner, or that, in other words, the conscience places Moses upon the judgment-seat, and casts down the Savior of sinners from the throne of grace. This is the strongest, greatest and severest temptation of the devil, that he says: ‘God is the enemy of sinners, you are a sinner, therefore, God is your enemy.’ This is the noose which Satan throws over the head of the poor child of man in order to strangle him.

Martin Luther. Source unknown.

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Consequences

Fornication Needs Fuel | Isaiah 9:18

by Alan Sharpe April 18, 2022

Not every man who consumes pornography becomes a serial killer, of course. But every serial killer consumes pornography.

by Alan Sharpe April 18, 2022

“For wickedness burns as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and kindle in the thickets of the forest; they shall mount up like rising smoke.”
Isaiah 9:18

On the day before he died by execution in the electric chair, serial killer Ted Bundy shared his thoughts on pornography. He shared them with James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. Bundy had spent almost 15 of the preceding years in prison with inmates guilty of similar crimes. He had spent a lot of time thinking about why he was where he was in life. Here’s what he told Dobson:

“I’ve lived in prison for a long time now, and I’ve met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography, deeply consumed by the addiction. The F.B.I.’s own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography.”
Source: <a href="https://
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Prevention

To Conquer Sexual Sin, Get Specific | Acts 15:28-29

by Alan Sharpe April 15, 2022

Once you translate your generic sin of sexual immorality into your specific sexual sin, you are on your way to achieving sexual purity.

by Alan Sharpe April 15, 2022

To Conquer Sexual Sin, Get Specific | Acts 15:28-29

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.”
Acts 15:28-29

One key to conquering sexual sin is specificity. Once you start describing your sins specifically, rather than seeing them in the abstract, you gain the insight you need to confess them, ask forgiveness for them, and forsake them. A valuable exercise is to take every generic mention of sexual sin and to make it apply to you specifically.

Consider the early church, for example. Jewish converts were troubling Gentile converts by telling them they had to be circumcised and keep the law. So, the church gathered and settled the matter. They proclaimed that Gentile believers in Christ had to obey only four things:

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Sanctification

“Let us never give up.” || John Calvin

by Alan Sharpe April 14, 2022

Let us never despair because of our limited success.

by Alan Sharpe April 14, 2022

No one can travel so far that he does not make some progress each day. So let us never give up. Then we shall move forward daily in the Lord’s way. And let us never despair because of our limited success. Even though it is so much less than we would like, our labour is not wasted when today is better than yesterday!
John Calvin

Excerpted from Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin. Public domain.

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Judgment

Watch Porn Habitually, Die Spiritually | Romans 8:13

by Alan Sharpe April 14, 2022

A man who looks at pornography habitually is, by definition, living according to the flesh. Unless he forsakes his sin, He will die and be separated from God for all eternity.

by Alan Sharpe April 14, 2022

Watch Porn Habitually, Die Spiritually | Romans 8:13

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Romans 8:13

Do you treat forgiveness as a pre-paid credit card? Do you sin sexually, repeatedly and habitually because you believe your sins—past, present, future—are all forgiven, no matter what, guaranteed? Do you look at pornography and masturbate, week in, week out, knowing that on every occasion you can always rely on God for His forgiveness because God is obligated to forgive you?

If you look at pornography and masturbate but want to stop, your inability to conquer your sin might just be tied to your misunderstanding of eternal security. If you believe you are “once saved, always saved” and that you can never fall away, you need to read your New Testament. Every writer in the New Testament warns believers about falling away. When commissioning the 12 disciples, Christ warns them five times about falling away.

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Consequences

You, Friend of Sex Traffickers | Proverbs 2:10-15

by Alan Sharpe April 13, 2022

When you view pornography, you support human traffickers. You support the kind of evil men that Solomon warns you about.

by Alan Sharpe April 13, 2022

You, Friend of Sex Traffickers | Proverbs 2:10-15

“When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths.”
Proverbs 2:10-15

Forty-nine percent of women who have worked as prostitutes report being filmed by their traffickers or customers. This video footage is often streamed or later distributed without their knowledge or consent. This means you have no way of knowing if the women in the porn you watch are willing participants. In many cases, they are not.

When you view pornography, you support human traffickers. You support the kind of men that Solomon warns you about, the men that speak perverse things, the men who walk in the ways of

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Prevention

Sexual Purity Is a List of Do’s, Not Don’ts

by Alan Sharpe April 12, 2022

Perform the positive actions that God commands, and you’ll have a positive day today, free of sexual sin.

by Alan Sharpe April 12, 2022

Sexual Purity Is a List of Do's, Not Don'ts

If you are a Christian man who has been struggling to overcome pornography or masturbation for some time, you may feel that the only path to victory is a life of self-denial. You may feel that the weight of scripture on this topic is a long list of “Thou shalt nots.” But the opposite is the case, particularly in the New Testament. The path to sexual purity is a list of things you are to do. Victory over sexual sin comes through what you do, not simply what you don’t do. Here are the top-10 actions you are commanded to take to live a life of sexual purity.

Make a covenant with your eyes not to look upon attractive women (Job 31:1)
Gouge out your right eye if it causes you to commit adultery, and throw it away (Matthew 5:29)
Flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18)
Put lust to death (<a href="ht
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Obedience

Hooked On Porn? Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. | Psalm 111:10

by Alan Sharpe April 11, 2022

From Genesis to Revelation, you discover that people who love the Lord fear the Lord. And those who fear the Lord obey the Lord.

by Alan Sharpe April 11, 2022

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.”
Psalm 111:10

If you want to quit porn, fear God. If you want wisdom, fear God. If you want to discover why you sin sexually, habitually, fear God. If you want to overcome sexual temptation, fear God. If you want to gain victory over your sexual immorality, fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

One of the problems in the church today (in the church in North America, at least) is that men don’t fear God anymore. There was a time when people would refer to a devout Christian man as “a God-fearing man.” How quaint. Today, we don’t tremble at God’s word. We don’t shake with fear at His judgments. We don’t cower in His presence. And because we don’t fear God, we don’t obey God. And because we don’t obey God, we lack victory over sexual sin.

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Prevention

“We must wear the whole armour of God.” || Corrie Ten Boom

by Alan Sharpe April 10, 2022

We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and the spiritual agents are from the very headquarters of evil.

by Alan Sharpe April 10, 2022

We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and the spiritual agents are from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore, we must wear the “whole armour of God,” that we may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when we have fought to a standstill, we may still stand our ground.
Corrie Ten Boom

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Prevention

Want to Quit Porn and Masturbation? Say “No.” | Titus 2:11-12

by Alan Sharpe April 8, 2022

The biblical remedy for porn, masturbation and sexual immorality isn’t complicated. It can be summed up in one word.

by Alan Sharpe April 8, 2022

Want to Quit Porn and Masturbation. Say "No." | Titus 2:11-12

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”
Titus 2:11-12 NIV

Want to know the secret to quitting porn? Quit porn. Want to know the secret to not masturbating? Don’t masturbate. I realize that this sounds like simplistic advice, because it is. The guaranteed way to quit sexual immorality is to quit sexual immorality. That’s what the Bible says.

How do you quit porn? Say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions. How do you quit masturbation? Say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions. That’s the formula, that’s the proven method, that’s the biblical remedy. It’s not complicated.

Celebrate Recovery, Sexaholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs complicate this issue of forsaking sexual sin. <a href="https://www.celebraterecovery.co

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Prevention

To Conquer the Flesh, Quit YouTube | Romans 13:14

by Alan Sharpe April 7, 2022

If you are serious about quitting pornography, you must avoid the video-sharing sites that arouse you sexually.

by Alan Sharpe April 7, 2022

To Quit Porn, I Quit YouTube | Romans 13:14

“Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
Romans 13:14

Recovering drug addicts don’t carry heroin in their pockets. Recovering alcoholics don’t visit bars. And Christian men who want to quit pornography don’t mindlessly surf video-sharing sites. If you want to conquer your sinful flesh, you must make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. This means getting off YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, TikTok and other video-sharing sites that host inappropriate videos.

I’m not talking about pornographic video sites. I’m talking about the popular sites that host videos that feature nudity, sexual inuendo, young women in bikinis, racy music videos, undressing, sex scenes from movies and TV shows, pool scenes, shower scenes, and more. Videos don’t have to be pornographic to be off limits. If they fulfil your lusts, they have to go.

If you are serious about quitting pornograp

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Consecration

“Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours.” || John Wesley

by Alan Sharpe April 6, 2022

Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You.

by Alan Sharpe April 6, 2022

man with kite symbolizing Christian overcoming porn addiction

Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen.
John Wesley

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Temptation

Detour Before the Dopamine | 1 Corinthians 10:13

by Alan Sharpe April 6, 2022

The secret to resisting sexual temptation is knowing not just the what of escape, but also the when. You must take God’s way of escape when He offers it. You must take your U-turn when you are given the chance.

by Alan Sharpe April 6, 2022

“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

Sexual sin is not an act, but a sequence. It begins with a trigger, and ends with an act. If you want to avoid the sinful act at the end of the sequence, you must make a U-turn long before you get there. If you want to take the way of escape that God always offers when you are tempted, you must know when to take it.

This is the key to understanding the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13—timing. Don’t expect God to offer you a door, or a window, or some other physical means of escape when you are tempted sexually. The way of escape that God provides is a window of opportunity, typically measured in mere minutes, maybe even just seconds. If you want to avoid the sexual sin, you mu

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Obedience

Will the Truth Set You Free? Not Quite. | John 8:31-32

by Alan Sharpe April 5, 2022

If you want to be set free from the slavery of pornography and masturbation, by all means seek the truth. But make that the end of your search, not the beginning.

by Alan Sharpe April 5, 2022

Will the Truth Set You Free? Not Quite. | John 8:31-32

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”
John 8:31-32

Some Christian men think victory over sexual immorality comes through knowledge. “If I just read the right books, if I just attend the best recovery group, if I just work the 12 steps or complete the right NoFap Challenge, I will learn what I have to learn about myself and my childhood trauma, and then I will be free,” they think. Some of these misguided brothers even quote Jesus, who said, “The truth shall make you free.”

But this is not all that Jesus said, is it? You can’t expect to attain sexual purity by believing in or acting upon only a portion of what Jesus teaches. A text taken out of context is simply a pretext—a pretext for believing whatever you want. So, notice the context. Jesus is speaking to Jews who believe in Him. These a

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Temptation

Sexual Sin Starts Between Your Ears | John 13:2

by Alan Sharpe April 4, 2022

Sexual purity comes when you change what you believe. Or, rather, when you change who you believe.

by Alan Sharpe April 4, 2022

“And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him.”
John 13:2

Your battle for sexual purity takes place in your mind. You may think that pornographic websites are the enemy, or that immodestly dressed women are the problem. You may even think you are an addict. But if you watch pornography habitually, if you masturbate compulsively, but long to quit, you must first realize that you don’t have a sexual problem—you have a thinking problem.

Your enemy is the devil. And the battleground is your mind. The devil puts thoughts and desires and beliefs into your mind, just as he did with Judas. Judas probably thought that betraying Jesus was his idea. But where did that idea come from in the first place? From the devil. The devil put the thought of betrayal into the heart of Judas.

In the Bible, the heart refers to

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Sanctification

“Christians should exhibit the holiness of God and the love of God.” || Francis Schaeffer

by Alan Sharpe April 2, 2022

Spiritually begins to have real meaning in our lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God.

by Alan Sharpe April 2, 2022

rivalry between two men to get the leadrship; surreal concept

To be really Bible-believing Christians we need to practice, simultaneously, at each step of the way, two biblical principles.

One principle is that of the purity of the visible church. Scripture commands that we must do more than just talk about the purity of the visible church; we must actually practice it, even when it is costly.

The second principle is that of an observable love among all true Christians. In the flesh we can stress purity without love, or we can stress love without purity; we cannot stress both simultaneously. To do so we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ and to the Holy Spirit. Without that, a stress on purity becomes hard, proud, and legalistic; likewise without it a stress on love becomes sheer compromise.

Spiritually begins to have real meaning in our lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God. We never do this perfectly, but we must look to the living Christ to help us do it truly.<

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Obedience

Do You Want to be Made Well? | John 5:6

by Alan Sharpe April 1, 2022

Where pornography is concerned, I don’t need to understand how Jesus will make me well. I just have to want Him to.

by Alan Sharpe April 1, 2022

“When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’”
John 5:6

I struggled with pornography for 30 years as a Christian man before I finally gave it up. I don’t know why I took so long. I knew that looking at inappropriate images was sin. I knew that lusting at women caused me to commit adultery. But still I struggled to get victory. I was like the man at the Pool of Bethesda, who had an infirmity for 38 years and still hadn’t been cured.

I think my problem was that I couldn’t imagine a life without porn. I had tried for so many years to quit that I had lost perspective on what was even possible. I knew in my heart that pornography was sin. But I also knew in my head that the temptation to view it was strong, that falling to temptation was so easy, and that I had a track record of quitting and then failing. I had resigned myself to probably never gettin

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