holiness Archives - Make No Provision

Lessons Learned After 11 Months Porn-Free

by Alan Sharpe October 4, 2022

As a Christian with a Bible, I knew that watching porn was wicked. I longed to be free, but now I realize that I wanted more than that. I wanted to be holy.

by Alan Sharpe October 4, 2022

I looked at pornography for the last time on November 4, 2021. That was the day I purposed before God to leave my sexual sin behind me and to pursue holiness. That’s also the day I started writing these daily devotionals. My goal was to chronicle my journey, to discover what God’s word has to say about sexual sin, how to avoid it, and how to live a victorious life in Christ Jesus.

The primary lesson I have learned, and it’s taken me 11 months to get here, is that freedom from pornography and masturbation is really just the start of the change I am looking for in my life. As a Christian with a Bible, I knew that watching pornography was wicked. I longed to be free of its grip, free of the temptation to seek it out and to watch it. But now I realize that I wanted more than that. I wanted to be holy.

I don’t mean holier-than-thou holy. Or so holy that they name a seminary after me. I mean holy in the sense that I am set apart unto God. Set apart as his vessel, his instrument, to use as He pleases. I realize today that,

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Sanctification

“Be holy—but don’t make a Christ of it.” || Robert Murray McCheyne

by Alan Sharpe September 30, 2022

Self-righteousness is the largest idol of the human heart—yet the idol which man loves most and God hates most.

by Alan Sharpe September 30, 2022

Self-righteousness is the largest idol of the human heart—yet the idol which man loves most and God hates most. Dearly beloved, you will always be going back to this idol. You are always trying to be something in yourself, to gain God’s favor by thinking little of your sin, or by looking to your repentance, tears, prayers; or by looking to your religious exercises, your frames, etc; or by looking to your graces, the Spirit’s work in your heart. Beware of false Christs. Strive to be holy—but do not make a Christ of it.

Robert Murray McCheyne

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Sanctification

Quit Porn Through Substitution, Not Just Elimination | Romans 6:19

by Alan Sharpe July 5, 2022

Porn isn’t something you renounce as much as something you replace. The path to sexual purity is substitution, not just elimination.

by Alan Sharpe July 5, 2022

Quit Porn Through Substitution, Not Just Elimination | Romans 6:19

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
Romans 6:19

You don’t quit porn. You replace it. You don’t conquer it and walk away in victory. You subdue it by replacing it with something else. You don’t stop watching porn. You start watching something better.

I am overstating my case of course, but only to make a point. Of course you are to quit pornography, subdue it and stop looking at it. But the way you abstain from porn is through substitution, not just through elimination. This is Paul’s point here in his letter to the men and women at Rome. “You used to offer parts of your body as slaves to uncleanness,” he tells them. “Now, offer parts of your body as slaves of righteousness for holiness instead.”

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Consecration

“Your whole usefulness depends on holiness.” || Robert Murray McCheyne

by Alan Sharpe June 21, 2022

Study universal holiness of life. Your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week.

by Alan Sharpe June 21, 2022

Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. Luther spent his best three hours in prayer.
Robert Murray McCheyne

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Sanctification

Are You Running in the Right Direction? | Hebrews 12:14-17

by Alan Sharpe March 2, 2022

What you run from, and what you run towards, has eternal consequences for your soul.

by Alan Sharpe March 2, 2022

Are You Running in the Right Direction? | Hebrews 12:14-17

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
Hebrews 12:14-17

If you want to conquer pornography and masturbation, run in the right direction. What you run from, and what you run towards, has eternal consequences for your soul. Those who flee fornication avoid sexual immorality. Those who don’t, don’t. Those who pursue holiness see God. Those who don’t, don’t.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, commands you to pursue holiness. The word purs

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Prevention
To Resist Sexual Sin, Look Up | Genesis 39:9

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by Alan Sharpe December 23, 2021

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

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

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by Alan Sharpe December 16, 2021

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

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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Temptation
Your Porn Problem is Internal | James 1:14

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by Alan Sharpe December 2, 2021

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

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
Porn is Progressive. But So is Sanctification. | 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5

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by Alan Sharpe December 1, 2021

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

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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