Alan Sharpe, Author at Make No Provision

“Sin appears in the mind, and can be conquered there.” || Amy Carmichael

by Alan Sharpe February 2, 2022 Leave a Comment

We have been given the power to close the door of the mind.

by Alan Sharpe February 2, 2022 Leave a Comment

All the great staining temptations, to selfishness, ambition, and other strong sins that violently affront the soul, appear first in the region of the mind, and can be fought and conquered there. We have been given the power to close the door of the mind. We can lose this power through disuse or increase it by use, by the daily discipline of the inner man in things which seem small and by reliance upon the word of the Spirit of Truth. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” It is as though He said, “Learn to live in your will, not in your feelings.”

Excerpted from Gold by Moonlight by Amy Carmichael. Public domain.

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Prevention

Do Your Porn Brakes Work? | Judges 16:1

by Alan Sharpe February 1, 2022 Leave a Comment

You and I both have a good set of brakes where sexual sin is concerned. Have you tested yours recently?

by Alan Sharpe February 1, 2022 Leave a Comment

“Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.” Judges 16:1

When it comes to pornography and sexual temptation, how good are your brakes? Are they in good repair? Are the brake pads worn? Do they stop you quickly enough, and often enough? Do you even use them?

That last question is not rhetorical. After all, Samson was a man consecrated to the Lord. God chose him from birth to lead Israel out of bondage to the Philistines. Samson was a Nazarite, an Israelite consecrated to the service of God. Renowned for his great strength, Samson nevertheless came to a humiliating end. Why? Because he didn’t control his lust.

You see how Samson operated from this historical account of his life. Samson went to Gaza. Saw a prostitute. Went in to have sex with her. No brake. From the moment he saw her to the moment he decided to go in to her, Samson had opportunity to apply the brakes. He could

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Obedience

In Your War with Lust, Never Carry a White Flag | 1 Peter 2:11

by Alan Sharpe January 31, 2022 Leave a Comment

If your fleshly lusts war against your soul, then that means you are in a battle. And your only job in this battle is to never, ever, surrender.

by Alan Sharpe January 31, 2022 Leave a Comment

In Your War with Lust, Never Carry a White Flag | 1 Peter 2:11

“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” 1 Peter 2:11

If your fleshly lusts war against your soul, as Peter says they do, then that means you are in a battle. And if you are in a battle, then that means you have an enemy. But your enemy isn’t without. It’s within.

In your war against pornography and masturbation, you are at war with yourself, with your fleshly lusts. That is, you are engaged in a daily conflict with inordinate bodily, animal, unregenerate desires. These lusts come in the form of sexual fantasies, sexual temptations, sexual urges. They attack you when you are watching pornography, when you are lying in bed, even when you are sitting in church.

Your job as a soldier in this war is to never surrender to these fleshly lusts. You are commanded to abstain from them. You are to keep away from them as an alcoholic sta

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Obedience

“Will you make Him a straight path?” || Catherine Booth

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

Will you trample under foot that accursed thing which has so long kept the fulness of the blessing from you? Will you give up arguing about it and trying to make out that it is not a stumbling-block, when you know it is?

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

I want you reasonably and calmly to see that this holiness is a real, definite blessing; that it is a level on to which the great mass of the professing Christians of this generation have not come, or even scarcely looked up. It is a high level, but it is a level on to which every one of you can come, if you will. You have heard enough about it. You are convinced you may have it. Will you have it? The Lord is sitting there; He is looking at you, and He is saying, “What is all this stir about? What is all this talk, this singing, and this praying about? Here I am. What do you want Me to do? I am ready to do it.”

And you say, “Lord, I want Thee to cleanse my heart from sin, and to fill me with the Holy Ghost, and to enable me to be whole-hearted and thorough in Thy service, and to go and win souls for Thee.” “Very well,” the Lord says, “I am ready to come into the temple, if you will clear out the rubbish. Are you willing for Me to come in? I am waiting to come in as a Refiner; but you must make a straight way for my feet. You must pick out the stones, and throw out th

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Lust

You Can’t Hide. But You Can Run. | 2 Timothy 2:22

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

You win the battle against pornography with your mind. When tempted by sexual thoughts, don’t fight. Flee.

by Alan Sharpe January 28, 2022 Leave a Comment

You Can't Hide. But You Can Run. | 2 Timothy 2:22

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” 2 Timothy 2:22

How do you run away from something in your mind? If you are on a cruise and the captain commands you to flee to the lifeboats, you know what to do and where to run. If you are on a hike and your guide commands you to run away from a rattlesnake on the path in front of you, your feet intuitively know what to do. But how do you flee from a thought, or a desire, something like lust? Two ways.

The first way to flee sexual lust and sexual temptation is with prevention. Draw up a list from experience of the people, places and things that excite your sexual lust. I’m talking about the immodest waitresses at that restaurant downtown. The porn websites whose names I won’t mention. Those dodgy apps on your smartphone. Flee youthful lusts by fleeing these people, places and things before you even come into contact with them

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Consequences

Kidnapper. Murderer. You? | 1 Timothy 1:8-11

by Alan Sharpe January 27, 2022 Leave a Comment

Sexual immorality ranks right up there with kidnapping and murder. Picture yourself among the lawless and ungodly to gain an incentive to quit porn.

by Alan Sharpe January 27, 2022 Leave a Comment

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

“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” 1 Timothy 1:8-11

You wake up this morning in a holding cell on Rikers Island. Rikers Island is New York City’s main jail complex. It consists of 10 jails, and houses close to 12,000 inmates. In your cell with you are 20 other offenders. You get to talking. Brad is inside for human trafficking. Sven is up for murdering his girlfriend. Moe lied repeatedly in court under oath. Chen strangled his father to de

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Consequences

You, Porn, and Jesus’ Last Words | Revelation 22:14-15

by Alan Sharpe January 26, 2022 Leave a Comment

If you watch porn and have sex with yourself in the process, Jesus has a warning for you. Your final destiny hinges on Jesus’ final words.

by Alan Sharpe January 26, 2022 Leave a Comment

You, Porn, and the Final Words of Jesus | Revelation 22:14-15

“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Revelation 22:14-15 NKJV

You can tell a lot about a person by their last words. On their death beds, the dying reveal what’s important to them. They finally let their guard down, and tell their loved ones some of the things they meant to say while living. After all, final words are just that—the last chance to say something meaningful.

If you want to know what Jesus thinks of pornography and having sex with yourself, simply turn to the last page in your Bible and read Jesus’ final words to you. These are not the last words that Jesus spoke while on earth, but the final words that He spoke to the Apostle John, the “revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave

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Consequences

Are You a Porn Victim? Or a Volunteer? | Ephesians 4:17-19

by Alan Sharpe January 25, 2022 Leave a Comment

Sin is always voluntary, never compulsory. No one, and no thing, forces you to look at pornography. You are never a victim. Only a volunteer.

by Alan Sharpe January 25, 2022 Leave a Comment

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
Ephesians 4:17-19 NKJV

In the battle against pornography and sexual immorality, there is no such thing as defeat—only surrender. There is never a time when temptation defeats you, or when sin defeats you, or when the devil defeats you. When you fall to porn or sexual sin, it’s not because you are overpowered. It’s because you surrender.

Sin is always voluntary, never compulsory. No one, and no thing, forces you to look at pornography. No one, and no thing, compels you to masturbate. Yes, the desire may seem irresistible, the urge may appear i

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Lust

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful | 1 Corinthians 7:1-2

by Alan Sharpe January 24, 2022 Leave a Comment

The remedy for sexual desire in single men and women is marriage. The remedy for sexual desire in married men and women is marriage. Any questions?

by Alan Sharpe January 24, 2022 Leave a Comment

“Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” 1 Corinthians 7:1-2 NKJV

When it comes to sexual immorality, the answer is marriage. Now, what’s your question? This is partly what Paul is saying in his letter to the church at Corinth. They posed a question to him in a letter. And Paul gave his answer to them in a letter that we know as 1 Corinthians.

Their question appears to be about sexual relations for single people, whether that activity is good or bad, permissible or forbidden, in their present circumstances. Paul says that it is good for a single man to not have sexual relations with a woman, assuming he is able to contain his desires. But, if he is unable to contain those desires, he should marry. Marriage is the answer for the single man and the single

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Temptation

“Mistaken grace is the saddest thing in the world.” || Samuel Rutherford

by Alan Sharpe January 24, 2022 Leave a Comment

Acquaint yourself with prayer. Make Christ your Captain and your armour. Make conscience of sinning when no eye seeth you.

by Alan Sharpe January 24, 2022 Leave a Comment

Illustration of man climbing a rope in the sky, ascension surreal abstract concept

I wish that ye take pains for salvation. Mistaken grace, and somewhat like conversion which is not conversion, is the saddest and most doleful thing in the world. Make sure of salvation, and lay the foundation sure, for many are beguiled. Put a low price upon the world’s clay; but a high price upon Christ. Temptations will come, but if they be not made welcome by you, ye have the best of it. Be jealous over yourself and your own heart, and keep touches with God. Let Him not have a faint and feeble soldier of you. Fear not to back Christ, for He will conquer and overcome. Let no man scaur at Christ, for I have no quarrels at His cross; He and His cross are two good guests, and worth the lodging. Men would fain have Christ good-cheap; but the market will not come down. Acquaint yourself with prayer. Make Christ your Captain and your armour. Make conscience of sinning when no eye seeth you. Grace be with you.

Excerpted from Letters of Samuel Rutherford</e

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Illustration of man climbing a rope in the sky, ascension surreal abstract concept

Prevention
To Avoid Injury or Death, Use Your Body Only as Directed | 1 Corinthians 6:13b

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by Alan Sharpe January 21, 2022 Leave a Comment on To Avoid Injury or Death, Use Your Body Only as Directed | 1 Corinthians 6:13b

There is a proper tool for every job. Use your body as God intends and you will avoid serious injury or death.

by Alan Sharpe January 21, 2022 Leave a Comment on To Avoid Injury or Death, Use Your Body Only as Directed | 1 Corinthians 6:13b

“Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. “ 1 Corinthians 6:13b

What task is a flathead screwdriver designed for? This is not a trick question. Are you supposed to use a flathead screwdriver as a chisel? No. Or as a prybar? No. Or as a punch? No. So, what are you supposed to use it for? To install and remove flathead screws. That’s the sole purpose that the tool is designed for.

Now, what about your body? What purpose is it designed for? This is not a trick question. Are you supposed to use your body to have sex with prostitutes? No. Or to masturbate to pornography? No. What about using your body to have sex with your girlfriend? No again. The Bible tells you and me that our bodies are not designed for sexual immorality. They are designed for sex with our wives and no one else. Sex is designed to take place between one man and one woman who are married to each other for one lifetime. That’s
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Sanctification
Sexual Purity Is a Journey, Not a Destination | Romans 13:13

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by Alan Sharpe January 20, 2022 Leave a Comment on Sexual Purity Is a Journey, Not a Destination | Romans 13:13

You don’t have a destination. You only have your daily walk with the Lord. And that walk involves no sexual immorality today.

by Alan Sharpe January 20, 2022 Leave a Comment on Sexual Purity Is a Journey, Not a Destination | Romans 13:13

“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.” Romans 13:13 ESV

If you want to get victory over habitual sexual sin, such as pornography and masturbation, first realize that you won’t find sexual purity on any map. Sexual purity isn’t a destination you hope to reach tomorrow. It’s a walk you take today.

In Paul’s words, you must “walk properly as in the daytime.” That is, you are to walk honestly (KJV), behave decently (NIV), conduct yourself properly and honorably (Amplified). Your walk is to involve no orgies or drunkenness, no sexual immorality or sensuality, and no quarreling or jealousy. Your walk is to be different from those who live in darkness.

Just don’t expect to arrive at a place in your life where you experience zero sexual lust, zero sexual temptation or zero sexual fantasies. T
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Consecration
“True religion consists in deep humility.” || David Brainerd

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by Alan Sharpe January 20, 2022 Leave a Comment on “True religion consists in deep humility.” || David Brainerd

Could not but think, as I have often remarked to others, that much more of true religion consists in deep humility, brokenness of heart, and an abasing sense of barrenness and want of grace and holiness, than most who are called Christians imagine . . . [I] saw so much of the wickedness of my heart that I longed to get away from myself . . . I felt almost pressed to death with my own vileness. Oh what a body of death is there in me . . . Oh the closest walk with God is the sweetest heaven that can be enjoyed on earth!

Excerpted from The Life of Rev. David Brainerd, from the diary of David Brainerd, edited by Jonathan Edwards. Public domain.

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

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by Alan Sharpe January 19, 2022 Leave a Comment on Struggling to Quit Porn? Where is Your Limp? | Matthew 18:8

Subtracting every source of sexual temptation from your life is worth it. You may start walking with a limp, but it’s worth it.

by Alan Sharpe January 19, 2022 Leave a Comment on Struggling to Quit Porn? Where is Your Limp? | Matthew 18:8

“If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire.” Matthew 18:8 NKJV

If your smartphone causes you to sin, should you keep it? No. Smash it to pieces, incinerate what remains, then scatter the ashes. If watching movies on Hulu triggers your lust and causes you to sin, should you keep watching? No. Cancel your subscription. If scrolling through youtube.com causes you to sin, should you keep visiting the site? No. Block it with porn-blocking software.

Getting victory over pornography is an exercise in subtraction. Whenever you discover that something, or someone, or somewhere causes you to sin by looking at porn, listening to porn, or reading porn, you subtract it from your life. And then you take preventive measures so that you never use that thing or meet that person or visit that place again.
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Consequences
Porn is a Deep Pit. Who Knew? | Proverbs 23:26-28

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by Alan Sharpe January 18, 2022 Leave a Comment on Porn is a Deep Pit. Who Knew? | Proverbs 23:26-28

Porn is a deep pit that’s easy to fall into but hard to climb out of. But there is a way out. And a way to avoid falling in.

by Alan Sharpe January 18, 2022 Leave a Comment on Porn is a Deep Pit. Who Knew? | Proverbs 23:26-28

“My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. For a harlot is a deep pit, and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim, and increases the unfaithful among men.” Proverbs 23:26-28

One thing that can be said about sexual sin is that it’s easy to fall into but difficult to climb out of. That’s not an original observation from a sex addiction therapist in the 21st century. It’s a truth that Solomon, renowned for his great wisdom, penned in a proverb to his son.

“A harlot,” warned Solomon, “is a deep pit.” That is, a harlot, a woman who sells her body for sex (a prostitute), is a hole in the ground that’s easy to fall into. Men fall for sex with prostitutes because the sex satisfies their lust but involves zero emotional commitment, zero chance of rejection, and zero responsibility towards the needs of the woman. The sex is simply transactional. As long as a man can afford the f
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Accountability
I Quit Porn After Taking God’s Word Personally | Proverbs 6:23-24

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by Alan Sharpe January 17, 2022 Leave a Comment on I Quit Porn After Taking God’s Word Personally | Proverbs 6:23-24

When Samuel penned this proverb to his boy, he didn’t write about The Bible or sexual sin in the abstract. That’s made all the difference to me.

by Alan Sharpe January 17, 2022 Leave a Comment on I Quit Porn After Taking God’s Word Personally | Proverbs 6:23-24

“For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a seductress.” Proverbs 6:23-24 NKJV

I tried multiple remedies as a Christian man for my sinful habit of watching pornography. I talked with my pastor (1996). I participated in a men’s study group at my church based on the book, Every Man’s Battle (2006). I installed Covenant Eyes on all my devices (2007). I got an accountability partner (2010). I attended weekly Celebrate Recovery meetings (2018-19). I confessed my sin to God and asked for forgiveness (1991-2021).

These actions worked with varying levels of success over the space of 30 years—none of them permanent. What finally worked was sitting down each day and reading God’s Word to discover what it had to say about pornography, adultery, lust, sexual temptation and sexual immoralit
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Sanctification
“There is room enough in heaven for you.” || Jonathan Edwards

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by Alan Sharpe January 16, 2022 Leave a Comment on “There is room enough in heaven for you.” || Jonathan Edwards

If you come to Christ, you need not fear but that he will prepare a place for you; he’ll see to it that you shall be well accommodated in heaven.

by Alan Sharpe January 16, 2022 Leave a Comment on “There is room enough in heaven for you.” || Jonathan Edwards

In my Father’s house are many mansions.
John 14:2

The disciples seemed very sorrowful at the news of Christ’s going away, but Christ comforts them with that, that in his Father’s house where he was going there was not only room for him, but room for them too. There were many mansions. There was not only a mansion there for him, but there were mansions enough for them all; there was room enough in heaven for them.

Here is encouragement for sinners that are concerned and exercised for the salvation of their souls, such as are afraid that they shall never go to heaven or be admitted to any place of abode there, and are sensible that they are hitherto in a doleful state and condition in that they are out of Christ, and so have no right to any inheritance in heaven, but are in danger of going to hell and having their place of eternal abode fixed there. You may be encouraged by what has been said, earnestly to seek heaven; for there are many mansio
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Prevention
To Avoid Sexual Lust, Avoid the Second Look | 2 Samuel 11:1-5

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by Alan Sharpe January 14, 2022 Leave a Comment on To Avoid Sexual Lust, Avoid the Second Look | 2 Samuel 11:1-5

David sinned not because of where he was, or because he caught a glimpse of a beautiful woman bathing, but because he took the second look.

by Alan Sharpe January 14, 2022 Leave a Comment on To Avoid Sexual Lust, Avoid the Second Look | 2 Samuel 11:1-5

As a Christian man, you fight a daily battle with your eyes. Like other men, you are tempted sexually primarily by what you see, and these days, you see a lot. You and I live in a hyper-sexualized culture where provocative images are everywhere. Billboards, TV commercials, magazines, websites, retail storefront displays, social media, beaches, smartphone apps, sidewalks, books, fitness centers, movie streaming services, workplaces, college campuses, public transit, swimming pools, church pews, and hundreds of other places tempt you to lust after women with your eyes.

If you want to gain victory over lustful looks, if you want to avoid the predictable chain of events that starts with an innocent look but ends with sexual sin (masturbating to porn, for example), learn a lesson from David, the King of Israel. Review what happened to him, and then act accordingly. Here’s how the event is recorded in The Second Book of Samuel, chapter 11.

It happened in the spring of the year, at the time
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Obedience
I Ditched My Smartphone to Conquer Porn | Matthew 5:27-30

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by Alan Sharpe January 13, 2022 Leave a Comment on I Ditched My Smartphone to Conquer Porn | Matthew 5:27-30

Given the choice between gouging out my right eye or ditching my smartphone to quit porn, I went with the phone. Obedience comes at a cost. But I’m happy to pay.

by Alan Sharpe January 13, 2022 Leave a Comment on I Ditched My Smartphone to Conquer Porn | Matthew 5:27-30

In November 2021, I finally gave up trying to control my compulsive habit of using my smartphone to view pornography. I replaced my Samsung S10 smartphone with a Jethro SC490 feature phone, a so-called “dumbphone” designed for seniors. The transition has been difficult, painful and inconvenient, but I have never been happier. Here’s why and how I made the move, and why I’m never going back.

Why I gave up my smartphone

I have been a Christian since the summer of 1991. I was converted at the age of 31. One of the defining moments of my conversion was the deliverance I received from my alcoholism. God took away my desire to drink, a Class A Miracle that I rank right up there with Moses parting the Red Sea. I have not touched a drop of alcohol since that day in June of 1991 when God saved me from the bottle without me even asking.

Today, I know that having alcohol in my home is a foolish idea. I
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Sanctification
“When the Holy Ghost comes in, the ‘old man’ goes out.” || Samuel Brengle

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by Alan Sharpe January 12, 2022 Leave a Comment on “When the Holy Ghost comes in, the ‘old man’ goes out.” || Samuel Brengle

The primary, the basal work of the baptism, is that of cleansing.

by Alan Sharpe January 12, 2022 Leave a Comment on “When the Holy Ghost comes in, the ‘old man’ goes out.” || Samuel Brengle

Many have looked at the promise of power when the Holy Ghost is come, the energy of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost, and the marvelous results which followed, and they have hastily and erroneously jumped to the conclusion that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is for work and service only.

It does bring power—the power of God, and it does fit for service, probably the most important service to which any created beings are commissioned, the proclamation of salvation and the conditions of peace to a lost world; but not that alone, nor primarily. The primary, the basal work of the baptism, is that of cleansing.

You may turn a flood into your millrace, but until it sweeps away the logs and brushwood and dirt that obstruct the course, you cannot get power to turn the wheels of your mill. The flood first washes out the obstructions, and then you have power.

The great hindrance in the hearts of God’s children to the power of the Holy Ghost is inbred sin�
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Obedience
No Condemnation. But No More Sexual Sin, Either. | John 8:1-11

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by Alan Sharpe January 12, 2022 Leave a Comment on No Condemnation. But No More Sexual Sin, Either. | John 8:1-11

Jesus demands that you confess your sexual sin and then forsake it. “No condemnation” is always followed by “sin no more.”

by Alan Sharpe January 12, 2022 Leave a Comment on No Condemnation. But No More Sexual Sin, Either. | John 8:1-11

If you listen to enough sermons about the woman caught in adultery and her encounter with Jesus, you might think that the only lesson to be learned is that Jesus doesn’t condemn sinners. But you would be only partly right. Which means, of course, that you would also be partly mistaken.

You read about the encounter in John’s gospel, chapter eight. The scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman taken in adultery, caught in the very act. They say the woman should be stoned to death. Jesus stoops down and writes something on the ground. He then stands, and says to her accusers, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). Those that hear His words are convicted by their conscience, and file out. They leave the woman alone with Jesus. Jesus then stands up and asks the woman, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” She replies, “No one, Lord.” And then Jesus replies with those immortal lines, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

T
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Accountability
Christian Porn Addict is an Oxymoron

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by Alan Sharpe January 11, 2022 Leave a Comment on Christian Porn Addict is an Oxymoron

The longer you view yourself as a porn addict who needs treatment and recovery, the longer you will take to gain lasting victory over your sexual immorality.

by Alan Sharpe January 11, 2022 Leave a Comment on Christian Porn Addict is an Oxymoron

If you are a Christian man who uses pornography habitually or compulsively, you are a sinner, a voluntary slave to sin—but not a porn addict. The longer you view yourself as a victim, and the longer you think of yourself as an addict who needs treatment, recovery and hand-holding, the longer you will take to repent of your sin and conquer pornography.

“Christian porn addict” is an oxymoron. The phrase ranks right up there with exact estimate, working vacation, same difference, civil war, genuine imitation, unbiased opinion and government savings plan. If you watch, read or listen to pornography habitually, God calls you an adulterer, a fornicator, void of understanding, deceived, and wicked—but never an addict.

Here are the top reasons you should stop calling yourself a Christian porn addict.

1. Porn addiction doesn’t exist

According to The American Psychological Association (APA), “Addiction
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Judgment
10 Things God Calls You if You Look at Pornography

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by Alan Sharpe January 10, 2022 Leave a Comment on 10 Things God Calls You if You Look at Pornography

If you want to understand how wicked pornography is in the sight of God, just study the words that God uses to describe the sexually immoral.

by Alan Sharpe January 10, 2022 Leave a Comment on 10 Things God Calls You if You Look at Pornography

Are you a porn addict? No. Not according to the Bible, anyway. The world may tell you that you have an addiction, that you have a wound, that you seek intimacy in the wrong places, and that you have a disease called porn addiction. But this is not how God looks at pornography and sexual immorality. If you want to know God’s view of your habitual sexual sin, simply open your Bible to discover what God calls the sexually immoral.

1. Adulterer

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:27

When you watch pornography, you look at a woman to lust after her. Jesus calls that adultery. That makes you an adulterer.

2. Idolater

For of this
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Sanctification
“Noah preached righteousness, and acted it.” || C. T. Studd

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by Alan Sharpe January 8, 2022 Leave a Comment on “Noah preached righteousness, and acted it.” || C. T. Studd

God’s men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.

by Alan Sharpe January 8, 2022 Leave a Comment on “Noah preached righteousness, and acted it.” || C. T. Studd

GOD NEVER WAS A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURER, AND NEVER WILL BE. God’s men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.

NOAH walked with God, he didn’t only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and didn’t melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, didn’t open the door an inch when once God had shut it. A real hero untained by the fear of man.

Learn to scorn the praise of men.
Learn to lose with God;
Jesus won the world thro’ shame!
And beckons us His road.

ABRAHAM, a simple farmer, at a word from the Invisible God, marched, with family and stock, through the terrible desert to a distant land to live among a people whose l
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Judgment
Sexually Immoral Christians Are Deceived | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

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by Alan Sharpe January 5, 2022 Leave a Comment on Sexually Immoral Christians Are Deceived | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Some professing Christians think they can call Jesus Lord, practice sexual sin, and still inherit the kingdom of God. They are deceived. Are you?

by Alan Sharpe January 5, 2022 Leave a Comment on Sexually Immoral Christians Are Deceived | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

If you claim to be a Christian but engage in habitual sexual immorality, you are deceived. If you profess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, but continue to masturbate to pornography, you are deceived. This might be the primary reason that you are failing to get victory over your sexual immorality. You are deluded about how you can be both a Christian and a habitual fornicator at the same time.

So, what are you deceived about? The Bible tells you. In The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, in the sixth chapter, Paul asks the church at Corinth a simple but searching question:

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were
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Lust
“I lived as if there was none but He and I in the world.” || Brother Lawrence

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by Alan Sharpe January 4, 2022 Leave a Comment on “I lived as if there was none but He and I in the world.” || Brother Lawrence

Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge; at other times I beheld Him in my heart as my FATHER, as my GOD:

by Alan Sharpe January 4, 2022 Leave a Comment on “I lived as if there was none but He and I in the world.” || Brother Lawrence

Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly GOD’S. This made me resolve to give the all for the all; so after having given myself wholly to GOD, that He might take away my sin, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.

Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge; at other times I beheld Him in my heart as my FATHER, as my GOD: I worshipped Him the oftenest that I could, keeping my mind in His holy Presence, and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I found no small pain in this exercise, and yet I continued it, notwithstanding all the difficulties that occurred, without troubling or disquieting myself when my mind had wandered involuntarily. I made this my business as much all the day long as at the app
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Obedience
“Obedience means death to your fondest hopes.” || Anthony Groves

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by Alan Sharpe December 30, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Obedience means death to your fondest hopes.” || Anthony Groves

When Abraham was called to quit his kindred and country and to put his trust under the shadow of the Almighty’s wing, his going constitutes that peculiar feature in his obedience,

by Alan Sharpe December 30, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Obedience means death to your fondest hopes.” || Anthony Groves

When Abraham was called to quit his kindred and country and to put his trust under the shadow of the Almighty’s wing, his going—notwithstanding that he knew not whither, and that he was perfectly unacquainted in what manner or to what extent he was to be provided for—constitutes that peculiar feature in his obedience, which all Christians feel and appreciate, and the spirit of which they profess to desire to have animating their own.

The same is also observable in the sacrifice of his son. Compliance in this case seems the death-blow to his fondest hopes; and to trust that, notwithstanding his compliance, the promises which God had made to him would be fulfilled, was a confidence resting on somewhat beyond the bounds of all human probability. Yet he does not hesitate to obey (and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us why), because he believed that God was able to raise his son up from the dead. Was this then tempting God? What says his Word? “The Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of Heaven the second time, and said, ‘By myself have I sworn, sa
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Sanctification
“The unmortified Christian and the heathen share the same religion.” || William Penn

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by Alan Sharpe December 26, 2021 Leave a Comment on “The unmortified Christian and the heathen share the same religion.” || William Penn

Unmortified Christians and the heathen worship the god of the world, the great lord of lusts. To him they bow with the whole powers of soul and sense.

by Alan Sharpe December 26, 2021 Leave a Comment on “The unmortified Christian and the heathen share the same religion.” || William Penn

The unmortified Christian and the heathen are of the same religion. For though they have different objects to which they do direct their prayers, that adoration in both is but forced and ceremonious, and the deity they truly worship is the god of the world, the great lord of lusts: to him they bow with the whole powers of soul and sense. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? And how shall we pass away our time? Which way may we gather wealth, increase our power, enlarge our territories, and dignify and perpetuate our names and families in the earth? Which base sensuality is most pathetically expressed and comprised by the beloved Apostle John, in these words: “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” which, says he, “are not of the Father, but of the world, that lieth in wickedness.” (1 John, ii. 16.)

It is a mournful reflection, but a truth no confidence can be great enough to deny, that these worldly lusts fill up the study, care, and conversation of wretched Christendom! and, which aggravates the misery, they have g
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Prevention
To Resist Sexual Sin, Look Up | Genesis 39:9

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by Alan Sharpe December 23, 2021 Leave a Comment on To Resist Sexual Sin, Look Up | Genesis 39:9

Sexual immorality is a sin against God. Yes, other people are involved in the transaction, but to get victory over your sexual sin you must gain a correct view of God’s holiness.

by Alan Sharpe December 23, 2021 Leave a Comment on To Resist Sexual Sin, Look Up | Genesis 39:9

If you want to gain lasting victory over pornography and sexual immorality, take your focus off yourself and put it on God. The problem you face is not addiction, but rebellion. The pathway to sexual purity requires you to see your sin more clearly. You need the kind of vision that Joseph had.

Joseph was working as a slave in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the guard of the pharaoh of Egypt. Joseph was head of the household. Potiphar’s wife was soliciting Joseph daily to have sex with her. Finally, Joseph rebuked her:

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Genesis 39:9

What Potiphar’s wife was proposing was straightforward enough, right? Having sex with her would make Joseph a fornicator, make Potiphar’
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Accountability
You Can’t Conquer it if You Don’t Call It | Genesis 39:9

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by Alan Sharpe December 22, 2021 Leave a Comment on You Can’t Conquer it if You Don’t Call It | Genesis 39:9

Some men refuse to name their sexual sin. They use euphemisms to hide their immorality. But the road to victory begins with naming sin for what it is.

by Alan Sharpe December 22, 2021 Leave a Comment on You Can’t Conquer it if You Don’t Call It | Genesis 39:9

You can tell a lot about a man by what he calls his sin. One man admits to visiting strip joints, while another man says he frequents gentlemen’s clubs. One man says he visits porn sites, while another tells you he views adult entertainment online. One man confesses to watching peep shows, while another man says he follows webcam models.

Some men refuse to name their sexual immorality. They couch their sin in euphemism and abstraction so that it doesn’t sound as bad as it is. But other men refuse to do this. One of them is Joseph. He’s the fellow who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers. You read about him in the book of Genesis. Joseph didn’t struggle with sexual sin, but he did have a problem with a married woman who kept inviting him, day by day, to have sex with her. This woman was also the wife of his boss. When she tempted Joseph, this is what he said in reply:

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, bec
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Prevention
Sexual Sin or Harmless Diversion? | Genesis 39:9

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by Alan Sharpe December 21, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Sin or Harmless Diversion? | Genesis 39:9

Next time you are tempted to view porn or act out sexually, remember Joseph. See what you are about to do for what it is. And acknowledge who you will be offending if you give in to the sexual temptation. It worked for Joseph.

by Alan Sharpe December 21, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Sin or Harmless Diversion? | Genesis 39:9

One of the easy deceptions of pornography is that viewing it is just an activity. Watching an X-rated video on your own, you may be deluded into thinking that your activity is just a harmless way to pass the time and release some stress. But the Bible doesn’t look upon pornography, or masturbating to pornography, or sexual immorality, as innocent activities.

Just consider the life of Joseph. After being sold into slavery and taken down to Egypt, Joseph becomes the overseer in the house of Potiphar, captain of the guard. Joseph is given responsibility for running Potiphar’s household. One day, Potiphar’s wife notices that Joseph is “handsome in form and appearance” (Gen 39:6). She lusts after him, and invites him to go to bed with her. Joseph refuses. This is how he replies:

“There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Genesis
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Prevention
Gouge Out Your Right Eye While Out and About: Part 3 of 3 | Mt 5:27-29

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by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Gouge Out Your Right Eye While Out and About: Part 3 of 3 | Mt 5:27-29

Jesus says pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin. Here’s how to do this while out and about.

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Gouge Out Your Right Eye While Out and About: Part 3 of 3 | Mt 5:27-29

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin (Matthew 5:27-28). Here’s how to do this while out and about.

Stop eating at restaurants where waitresses wear revealing uniforms
Stop attending strip clubs, massage parlors and so-called men’s clubs
Stop attending theatres to watch movies that are rated NC-17 and R
If your library card causes you to borrow steamy novels or inappropriate movies and TV shows on DVD, cut it up
Stop driving, walking, jogging, cycling or skating through parts of town where you know you will see provocative women or sexually suggestive billboards and storefront displays
If a nearby female colleague dresses provocatively, re-arrange your desk or chair to permanently face the other way
If an immodestly dressed woman sits near you, or vice versa, get up and sit where you can’t ogle her
Don’t walk through the lingerie section at Walmart (or any other store, for that matter)</
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Prevention
Pluck Out Your Right Eye Online: Part 2 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-28

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by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Pluck Out Your Right Eye Online: Part 2 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-28

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin. Here’s how to do this online.

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Pluck Out Your Right Eye Online: Part 2 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-28

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin (Matthew 5:27-28). Here’s how to do this online.

If your smartphone causes you to sin, smash it into a thousand pieces and fling the fragments into several dumpsters across town. Then buy a dumb phone that gives you zero access to the internet (recovering heroin addicts don’t carry heroin in their pockets)
Install an internet porn filter, such as Covenant Eyes, on all your devices (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone) so that you can’t access pornographic websites or apps anymore
Delete your Facebook account if it causes you to look at inappropriate images and videos
Delete your Twitter account if it causes you to watch porn
Delete your Instagram account if it causes you to gape at women
Delete your TikTok account if it tempts you to think sexually immoral thoughts about the women who post there
Use the Site Blocking feature in Covenant Eyes (or the internet fil
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Prevention
Pluck Out Your Right Eye at Home: Part 1 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-29

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by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Pluck Out Your Right Eye at Home: Part 1 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-29

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin. Here’s how to do this with the people, places and things in your home.

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Pluck Out Your Right Eye at Home: Part 1 of 3 | Matthew 5:27-29

Jesus says you are to pluck out your right eye and cast it from you if that eye causes you to commit sexual sin (Matthew 5:27-29). Here’s how to do this with the people, places and things in your home.

Cancel your subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO and other streaming services that broadcast sexually explicit movies and shows
Cancel your cable television subscription
Cancel your subscriptions to Sports Illustrated, Maxim, GQ and other magazines that show women wearing practically nothing
If your wife subscribes to Cosmopolitan, Shape, Vogue and other print magazines that feature female nudity and articles about sex, ask her to hide them where you won’t find them
If your wife hides her women’s magazines from you, don’t go hunting for them
Stop taking your smartphone into the bathroom with you
Throw away all of your AO-Rated (adults only) video games and any others that feature sexually suggestive characters, images and storylines
Cleanse yo
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Lust
Adultery in the Heart Involves Two People | Matthew 5:27-28

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by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Adultery in the Heart Involves Two People | Matthew 5:27-28

When you watch pornography and lust after a woman, you commit adultery with that woman. Where this adultery takes place doesn’t matter

by Alan Sharpe December 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Adultery in the Heart Involves Two People | Matthew 5:27-28

Do you miss the entire point of Jesus’ teaching on adultery in the heart by dwelling on the where of adultery and not on the who? Read the verse again. Spot where you misread it.

“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

Jesus says, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery WITH HER in his heart.” Where the adultery takes place is immaterial. What is material is with whom the adultery takes place. Adultery, after all, requires two people. You are one of them. The other person is the woman you lust after. When you watch pornography and lust after a woman, you commit adultery with that woman. This is what Jesus is saying. Where this adultery takes place doesn’t matter.
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Consecration
“‘Be filled with the Spirit’ is a command to be obeyed.” || John MacNeil

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by Alan Sharpe December 18, 2021 Leave a Comment on “‘Be filled with the Spirit’ is a command to be obeyed.” || John MacNeil

If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, a sin not to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

by Alan Sharpe December 18, 2021 Leave a Comment on “‘Be filled with the Spirit’ is a command to be obeyed.” || John MacNeil

“Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) is a command to be obeyed, a duty to be done. Many of God’s people are acknowledging that they did not know that “Be filled with the Spirit” was a command; but it is, and there is no excuse for not knowing. You will notice that in Ephesians 5:18 there is a double command, a negative, “Be not drunk,” and a positive, “Be ye filled.” The positive command is as authoritative as the negative, and was binding on just as many of those Ephesian Christians as was the negative command.

Now what was true for those believers there in Ephesus in the long-ago is equally true for all believers on God’s footstool to-day. Is it a sin for a believer today to disobey the command, “Be not drunk”? and is it then a virtue to disobey the equally authoritative command, “Be ye filled”? If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, a sin not to be filled. We are commanded and expected to live a Spirit-filled life, to be filled, not with
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Obedience
Sexual Immorality? There’s a Law for That. | Acts 15:28-29

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by Alan Sharpe December 17, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Immorality? There’s a Law for That. | Acts 15:28-29

Of the 613 commandments in the Old Testament scriptures, sexual immorality made it into the New Testament. Enough said?

by Alan Sharpe December 17, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Immorality? There’s a Law for That. | Acts 15:28-29

If you are a Christian, then you are no longer under law, but under grace, right? The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament do not apply to you, do they? If you are a Gentile believer, then you don’t have to keep the law to be saved, do you?

Well, almost.

The early church faced these doubts. Some believers who had come to Christ from Judaism were going about telling Gentiles that they had to be circumcised to be saved. They were applying an Old Testament law to New Testament believers. This was causing great confusion and anxiety in the early church. So, a group of apostles and elders in the church came together to settle the matter. This is what they decreed:

“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 wel
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Sanctification
Does Your Sexual Immorality Give Off Hints? | Ephesians 5:3

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by Alan Sharpe December 16, 2021 Leave a Comment on Does Your Sexual Immorality Give Off Hints? | Ephesians 5:3

There should be not even a hint of sexual immorality in your life. Not a rumor, not a clue, not a trace, not a whiff. Zero evidence.

by Alan Sharpe December 16, 2021 Leave a Comment on Does Your Sexual Immorality Give Off Hints? | Ephesians 5:3

Walk into the average church and you’ll hear no mention of pornography or sexual immorality. Not from the pulpit. Not in Sunday School. Not in small groups. And that’s as it should be. The New Testament teaches us that sexual immorality and uncleanness should not even be named among Christians. In Ephesians, Paul tells us:

“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.”
Ephesians 5:3 NIV

But the reality in the church is different from what Paul has in mind, isn’t it? Sure, few churches mention pornography or sexual immorality, they don’t even hint at it, but pornography, sex outside or marriage and other forms of sexual immorality are rampant in the church. According to a study conducted by the Barna Group, 64% of Christian men admit to viewing pornogra
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Judgment
Sexual Immorality Ends in Divine Judgment | Hebrews 13:4

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by Alan Sharpe December 15, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Immorality Ends in Divine Judgment | Hebrews 13:4

The Bible makes plain that those who indulge in sexual sin will pay the ultimate price: eternal judgment in the lake of fire. Can’t say you weren’t warned.

by Alan Sharpe December 15, 2021 Leave a Comment on Sexual Immorality Ends in Divine Judgment | Hebrews 13:4

If you sat down right now and listed all the consequences you can anticipate if you continue in your sexual immorality, where would God’s wrath appear on your list, if at all? One of the prevailing errors of this age is that if you are saved, God will overlook your sexual immorality and adultery. Your place in heaven is reserved, and you will arrive there by and by, no matter the depth, breadth or length of your sexual sin.

But this is not what the Scriptures say. The Bible makes plain that those who indulge in sexual sin will pay the ultimate price. Simply turn to the New Testament book of Hebrews, and read the 13th chapter.

“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
Hebrews 13:4

Notice that God will not judge the sins of fornication and adultery. God will judge the perpetrators, those who engage in these sins. God’s judgment is res
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Lust
Your Pornography Problem? You. | Mark 7:20-23

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by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Pornography Problem? You. | Mark 7:20-23

Your challenge isn’t primarily adult websites, immodestly dressed women, Netflix or your smartphone. It’s you. You are your porn problem.

by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Pornography Problem? You. | Mark 7:20-23

If you have a problem with the sins of pornography or masturbation, don’t look only to outward solutions to your sin. Your challenge is not primarily adult websites, immodestly dressed women, magazine racks, or your smartphone. Your challenge isn’t them. It’s you. You are your porn problem.

You discover this truth about yourself from Jesus. The religious leaders of His day thought defilement came from without. Jesus set them straight. He told them:

“What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
Mark 7:20-23

Notice the sexual sins: adulteries, fornications (sexual immorality), lewdness. Almost 25% of the sins that Jesus lists are sexual sins. And they h
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Sanctification
“Soul poverty is the route to deeper knowledge of God.” || A. W. Tozer

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by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Soul poverty is the route to deeper knowledge of God.” || A. W. Tozer

The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing.

by Alan Sharpe December 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Soul poverty is the route to deeper knowledge of God.” || A. W. Tozer

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the “poor in spirit.” They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem; that is what the word “poor” as Christ used it actually means. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Let me exhort you to take this seriously. It is not to be understood as mere Bible teaching to be stored away in
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Judgment
You, Porn, and Sodom and Gomorra | Jude 1:5-7

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by Alan Sharpe December 13, 2021 Leave a Comment on You, Porn, and Sodom and Gomorra | Jude 1:5-7

If you struggle today with viewing pornography, masturbation or another sexual sin, take a warning from the fate of Sodom and Gomorra.

by Alan Sharpe December 13, 2021 Leave a Comment on You, Porn, and Sodom and Gomorra | Jude 1:5-7

If you ever wonder what the future looks like for you and your habitual sexual immorality, just look back in human history to the cities of Sodom and Gomorra. God punishes sexual sin, and the fate of these two cities holds a lesson for you. You read about it in the New Testament book of Jude.

“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Jude 1:5-7

God rained brimstone and fire upon Sodom and Gomorra (<a href="https://biblehub.com/nkjv/genesis/19.htm" targe
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Prevention
You, Porn and Apostasy | Jude 1:4

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by Alan Sharpe December 11, 2021 Leave a Comment on You, Porn and Apostasy | Jude 1:4

Are there apostates sitting in the pews of your church who use the grace of God to excuse their immoral sexual behavior? Probably.

by Alan Sharpe December 11, 2021 Leave a Comment on You, Porn and Apostasy | Jude 1:4

If you’ve ever wondered how to recognize an apostate in your church, look for the man who watches pornography habitually but says the grace of God covers his sin. Look for the man who uses the grace of God as a license to practice sexual immorality. “I am eternally secure in my salvation,” he says. “I know God will forgive me for my sexual sins because they are all covered—past, present, future—by His infinite grace.”

The book of Jude in the New Testament warns you against such men, apostates who deny our Lord.

“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jude 1:4

Lewdness means licentiousness, that is, promiscuous and unprincipled sexual behavior. It also means lasciviousness, namely, wanton, lewd, lustful activity. What this passage warns is that th
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Lust
What Have You Left Behind? | Genesis 39:12

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by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment on What Have You Left Behind? | Genesis 39:12

Victory over sexual sin means forsaking your sin by leaving something behind. You know what that something is.

by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment on What Have You Left Behind? | Genesis 39:12

If you want to conquer pornography, masturbation or any other sexual sin, expect to leave something behind. A life of sexual purity looks different from one of habitual sexual sin. Just consider the life of Joseph.

After Joseph arrives in Egypt as a slave, he becomes master of the household of Potiphar, the captain of the guard of the pharaoh of Egypt. Potiphar has a wife who notices that Joseph is “handsome in form and appearance” (Gen 39:6). She lusts after Joseph and invites him to have sex with her. Joseph refuses. She persists, day after day, but Joseph consistently refuses her invitations to sin against God. But, one day, she takes things further:

“But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.”
Genesis 39:11-12
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Sanctification
“Godly sorrow and true faith transform a man.” || Johann Arndt

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by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Godly sorrow and true faith transform a man.” || Johann Arndt

Sad experience teaches us continually, that our whole nature, body and soul, is polluted with every kind of sin, vice, and corruption.

by Alan Sharpe December 10, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Godly sorrow and true faith transform a man.” || Johann Arndt

Godly sorrow and true faith thoroughly change a man; that they crucify the flesh, effect an entire transformation in the soul, and beget, through the Holy Ghost, a new life. Lest, however, this should be a mere theoretical knowledge, devoid of life and practice, God has been pleased to set before us his own Son, not only as a ransom and a Mediator, but also as a mirror of perfect godliness, and as a most finished pattern of the new man, who is regenerated after the image of God. In him, the fleshly Adam, the corrupt nature, never reigned; but the blessed God alone. Him it hath pleased God to set forth before our eyes, that, contemplating him and his righteous life, we might be daily more and more renewed after his image.

Sad experience teaches us continually, that our whole nature, body and soul, is polluted with every kind of sin, vice, and corruption. These are the works of the devil appearing in the carnal man; and it is principally in the depraved and perverted will, that these diabolical operations are most visibly discern
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Judgment
Porn and the Point of No Return | Revelation 9:21

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by Alan Sharpe December 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn and the Point of No Return | Revelation 9:21

Pornography is a type of sexual immorality that gets progressively more sinful. Don’t assume you can continue for long on the path of sexual sin without facing divine judgment.

by Alan Sharpe December 9, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn and the Point of No Return | Revelation 9:21

The sin of watching pornography is not static, but progressive. The sinful images you look at today will no longer stimulate you in a few months. You will require images that are progressively more vile, more wicked, to satisfy you. The longer you watch pornography, the deeper you descend into the pit of sin, and the harder it is to climb out. Assuming you ever do climb out.

Just consider the people who are alive at the end of the age, when God brings His judgment upon the earth. You read about them in the New Testament book of Revelation. God brings hail and fire that destroys most plant and aquatic life. God darkens the sun and moon. God sends a plague of demonic locusts that torture those who are unsaved. And God sends an army of horsemen who kill a third of humanity.

And what do you suppose is the response of those still left alive on earth after all of these divine judgments? The Apostle John tells us.

“But the rest of mankind,
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Lust
Porn Wants You to Conform | 1 Peter 1:14

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by Alan Sharpe December 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn Wants You to Conform | 1 Peter 1:14

You are in control of your evil desires. Don’t conform to them. Let them be like the old boot that is now six sizes too small for your foot. You have grown. Evil desires don’t fit you anymore.

by Alan Sharpe December 8, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn Wants You to Conform | 1 Peter 1:14

You have power over sexual lust. You are not addicted to pornography. Or sexual immorality. You can defeat them. But you must understand how sexual lust operates in order to conquer it.

The Apostle Peter gives you the formula in his first letter. He writes:

“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.”
1 Peter 1:14 NIV

These evil desires are the evil lusts, evil urges, and evil, passionate longings that you faced before you were saved and that you still face after you are saved. The only difference is in what you do with these evil desires now. As you can see from this text, evil desires want you to conform to them. Evil lusts want you to mold your life around them. That’s why Peter commands you to not conform your life to your evil desires.

Victory in the Christian life comes not from having no evil desires
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Sanctification
Is Pornography Your Idol? | Ephesians 5:5

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by Alan Sharpe December 7, 2021 Leave a Comment on Is Pornography Your Idol? | Ephesians 5:5

You don’t have to bow down before a totem pole to be an idolater. Visiting porn sites will do. If you want to inherit the kingdom of God, repent of your idolatry.

by Alan Sharpe December 7, 2021 Leave a Comment on Is Pornography Your Idol? | Ephesians 5:5

If you are a Christian, I doubt that you bow before a golden calf for your morning devotions. But if you are a fornicator, you are an idolator. You just worship a different kind of idol. You find this truth in the New Testament book of Ephesians, the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. Here is what Paul writes:

“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”
Ephesians 5:5

A fornicator is someone who practices fornication, that is, sexual immorality, such as sex outside of marriage, sex with animals, incest, and masturbating to pornography. Fornicator comes from the Greek pornos, a man who prostitutes himself. Notice that Paul does not group the fornicator, the unclean person and the covetous man with the idolater. He does not name four types of sinner. No, Paul says that
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Judgment
The Naked Truth About Porn | 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

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by Alan Sharpe December 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on The Naked Truth About Porn | 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

If you think you can intentionally and regularly view pornography but still inherit the kingdom of God, you are deceived. Paul’s warning is for you.

by Alan Sharpe December 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on The Naked Truth About Porn | 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

What would you think of a Christian brother who ran a protection racket in your neighborhood, extorting money from business owners, but who nevertheless thought he was on his way to glory? What would you think of a Christian man who spends his Sunday mornings with you at church, and his Sunday nights stealing cars, but who nevertheless has assurance of his salvation and is looking forward to reaching heaven by and by?

These two men think there are no eternal consequences for their willful, habitual sin. And so they continue professing Christ while practicing lawlessness. But are they any different from the man who professes Christ but who watches pornography willfully, habitually? Find the answer in 1 Corinthians, chapter six.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortion
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Sanctification
“I’d rather feel contrition than know the definition.” || Thomas à Kempis

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by Alan Sharpe December 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on “I’d rather feel contrition than know the definition.” || Thomas à Kempis

If thou knewest the whole Bible, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what should all this profit thee without the love and grace of God?

by Alan Sharpe December 6, 2021 Leave a Comment on “I’d rather feel contrition than know the definition.” || Thomas à Kempis

What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussion concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility, and be thus displeasing to the Trinity? For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God. I had rather feel contrition than be skillful in the definition thereof. If thou knewest the whole Bible, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what should all this profit thee without the love and grace of God? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, save to love God, and Him only to serve. That is the highest wisdom, to cast the world behind us, and to reach forward to the heavenly kingdom.

It is vanity then to seek after, and to trust in, the riches that shall perish. It is vanity, too, to covet honours, and to lift up ourselves on high. It is vanity to follow the desires of the flesh and be led by them, for this shall bring misery at the last. It is vanity to desire a long life, and to have little care for a good life. It is vanity to take thought only for the life which now is, and not to look forward to th
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Prevention
Want to Quit Porn? Avoid Her Corner. | Proverbs 7:6-9

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by Alan Sharpe December 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Quit Porn? Avoid Her Corner. | Proverbs 7:6-9

If you want to avoid porn, stop walking though the places in town where you know you’ll find it. You know where they are, offline and online. Visiting them proves you are devoid of understanding.

by Alan Sharpe December 4, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Quit Porn? Avoid Her Corner. | Proverbs 7:6-9

If you want to conquer your compulsive porn habit, if you want to break free from the grip of habitual sexual sin, learn a lesson from a young man who lived in Israel around 700 years before Christ. You read about him in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter seven, starting at verse six:

“For at the window of my house, I looked through my lattice, and saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner. And he took the path to her house, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.”
Proverbs 7:6-9

Notice how Solomon describes the place where the prostitute looks for customers. It is a corner, an intersection of two or more streets so that the whore has the greatest chance of soliciting the largest number of men. It is her corner. People in this town see her at this corner during so many hours of the day and night, and on so many days thro
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Prevention
Want to Conquer Lust? Learn to Walk. | Galatians 5:16

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by Alan Sharpe December 3, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Conquer Lust? Learn to Walk. | Galatians 5:16

When you walk alone, you go astray. You get lost. You stumble into sin. But when you walk in the Spirit, you do not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

by Alan Sharpe December 3, 2021 Leave a Comment on Want to Conquer Lust? Learn to Walk. | Galatians 5:16

I heard of a Christian man who was well into his 80s. A much younger brother asked him, “At what age does a man’s sexual desires diminish? When can I expect my sexual urges to disappear?” The older brother looked at him with a puzzled smile. “I don’t know,” he replied. “You will have to ask someone who is older than I am.”

If you are a Christian man, you cannot hope that your sexual lust is going to vanish with age. You cannot expect that it will atrophy without you doing something. To defeat lust, you must take the initiative. And that initiative is described for you in the New Testament book of Galatians:

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16

Walk. In. The. Spirit. Four simple words that promise a lifetime of freedom from falling to the lust of the flesh. Paul is not talking here simply about conquering lustful thoughts or desires. He is talking about
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Temptation
Your Porn Problem is Internal | James 1:14

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by Alan Sharpe December 2, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Porn Problem is Internal | James 1:14

You respond to pornography because you desire it. You can’t be tempted by something you don’t desire. If you want to gain victory over your temptations, replace your desires.

by Alan Sharpe December 2, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Porn Problem is Internal | James 1:14

Your compulsive use of pornography is a heart issue. Sure, you live in a hyper-sexualized culture. And sure, pornography is attractive because it’s available, affordable and anonymous, and because it gives you a dopamine hit on queue. But your porn problem isn’t outside of you. You can’t blame anyone when you fall to temptation.

Likewise with the multiple remedies on the market for helping “porn addicts.” Therapy, sexual addiction clinics, 12-step recovery groups, internet porn filters, rubber bands on your wrist, accountability partners and more all have their place. These are external aids that may help you gain victory over your compulsive sexual sin. But you can’t blame anyone, or any group, or any technology, when you give in to temptation and watch pornography.

You know this, and I know this, because God’s Word is clear on the matter. You are drawn to watch pornography by an inward compulsion. That compulsion is lust. Read all about it in the New Testament book of James:
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Sanctification
“Have you received the Holy Spirit?” || R. A. Torrey

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by Alan Sharpe December 2, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” || R. A. Torrey

to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that we are conscious of the joy with which He fills our hearts different from any joy that we have ever known in the world.

by Alan Sharpe December 2, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” || R. A. Torrey

Every one who has truly received Jesus must have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him in some sense; but in many believers, though the Holy Spirit dwells in them, He dwells way back in some hidden sanctuary of their being, back of consciousness. It is something quite different, something far better than this, to receive the Holy Spirit in the sense that Paul meant in his question (Acts 19:2).

To receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that one knows experimentally that he has received the Holy Spirit, to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that we are conscious of the joy with which He fills our hearts different from any joy that we have ever known in the world; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that He rules our life and produces within us in ever increasing measure the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that we are conscious of His drawing our hearts out in prayer in a way that is not of ourselves; to receive the Holy Spirit in such a sense that
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Sanctification
Porn is Progressive. But So is Sanctification. | 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

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by Alan Sharpe December 1, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn is Progressive. But So is Sanctification. | 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

If you continue to watch pornography, you will progress to more wicked forms of sin. But if you continue in sanctification, you will progress in holiness.

by Alan Sharpe December 1, 2021 Leave a Comment on Porn is Progressive. But So is Sanctification. | 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

Want to discover God’s will for your life? Open your Bible and turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians. Find chapter four, and run your finger down to verses three through five. Here’s what you read:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

God’s will for you is no pornography. No sex with yourself while looking at porn. No sex outside of marriage. Period. There are some decisions in life that you must make without a clear word from the Lord (which career to pursue, where to live, who to marry), but whether you should look at pornography is not one of them. God has spoken on the subject, and spoken clearly.

God’s will
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Sanctification
What to Say When Tempted Sexually | Philippians 4:13

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by Alan Sharpe November 30, 2021 Leave a Comment on What to Say When Tempted Sexually | Philippians 4:13

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 on What to Say When Tempted Sexually | Philippians 4:13

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 29, 2021 Leave a Comment on Put Lust to Death | Colossians 3:5

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 on Put Lust to Death | Colossians 3:5

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 28, 2021 Leave a Comment on “He will make you able to conquer the evil habit.” || Charles Spurgeon

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 27, 2021 Leave a Comment on What’s Your Instrument of Unrighteousness? | Romans 6:13

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 26, 2021 Leave a Comment on Are You Loyal to Lust? | Romans 6:12

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 on Are You Loyal to Lust? | Romans 6:12

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 25, 2021 Leave a Comment on To Quit Porn, Hide Scripture (Not Your Sin) | Psalm 119:11

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 on To Quit Porn, Hide Scripture (Not Your Sin) | 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

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by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Christian life is warfare. The quicker we find out, the better.” || D. L. Moody

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment on To Defeat Porn, Make Bible Promises Personal | 1 Corinthians 10:13

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

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 23, 2021 Leave a Comment on Victory Over Pornography is Always Within Reach | 1 Corinthians 10:13

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 on Victory Over Pornography is 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

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by Alan Sharpe November 22, 2021 Leave a Comment on Your Guaranteed Escape from Pornography | 1 Corinthians 10:13

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 on Your Guaranteed Escape from Pornography | 1 Corinthians 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

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by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Welcome any trials that teach us what we are.” || Madam Guyon

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 20, 2021 Leave a Comment on Flee Sexual Immorality | 1 Corinthians 6:18

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 on Flee Sexual Immorality | 1 Corinthians 6:18

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 18, 2021 Leave a Comment on You Are Not a Porn Addict. You’re a Volunteer. | Romans 6:13

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 17, 2021 Leave a Comment on Crucified Men Don’t Watch Pornography | Romans 6:6

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Our Lord cares for the ‘broken pieces’ of your life.” || Amy Carmichael

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

by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment on “Our Lord cares for the ‘broken pieces’ of your life.” || Amy Carmichael

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 16, 2021 Leave a Comment on Don’t Expect Grace to Cover Your Habitual Sexual Sin | Romans 6:1-2

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

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 are already paid for and taken care of by the infinite sacrifice of Christ, and that you can continue in your habitual sexual sin because God’s grace towards you is guaranteed? Then I have bad news for you. Read it for yourself in the letter of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, chapter six:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Ce
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Obedience
Heaven with a Flip Phone or Hell with a Smartphone. Your Choice. | Mark 9:47-48

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by Alan Sharpe November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment on Heaven with a Flip Phone or Hell with a Smartphone. Your Choice. | Mark 9:47-48

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on Serious About Quitting Porn? Where is Your Vow? | Psalm 101:3

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 14, 2021 Leave a Comment on “The Spirit dwelling in you is no mere influence.” || Watchman Nee

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 13, 2021 Leave a Comment on Quitting Free Porn Will Cost You Plenty if You Quit Biblically | Matthew 5:27-29

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment on “The way to trust Christ is to know Christ.” || Henry Drummond

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe November 12, 2021 Leave a Comment on To Defeat Porn, Pluck Out Your Right Eye. Then Cast it Away. | Matthew 5:27-29

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

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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