Table of Contents
1 Your King’s Declaration of War Against Lust
2 The Hardest Battle God’s Sons Have Ever Fought
3 The Threat of Willing Wicked Women on the World Wide Web
4 We Are at War, But Are We Warriors?
10 Get Grace, Encouragement, & Protection
11 Get Smart, Scared, & Sensitive
A P.O.W.E.R. Plan for God Times
B P.O.W.E.R. Plan for Barnabas Groups
C Your Plan & Progress in Your War with Lust
D Memory Verses for Your War with Lust
Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure
Ephesians 4:30
Week 4
– For a God Time use the “P.O.W.E.R. Plan” in Appendix A.
– After reading this chapter, answer the following questions:
1) How does sinful lust hurt your Father in Heaven?
2) How does sinful lust hurt the Holy Spirit in you?
3) What was most meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?
There is no such thing as a secret sin. This is what the wicked woman in Proverbs 7 wanted the stupid boy to believe. She told him: “Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning. Let’s enjoy each other’s caresses, for my husband is not home. He’s away on a long trip” (Prov 7:18-19). The message: “no one will ever know.”
In the same way, the demon-possessed destroyers of your wife and life on the Internet want to convince you that no one will know of your sin with them. But Someone does know. And He is God. The Scriptures tell us:
Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. (Ephesians 4:30)
Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure.
Looking at naked, disgusting, demon-possessed destroyers of your wife and life will hurt your Father in Heaven
We have written elsewhere in the Christian Essentials:
The constant presence of God in your life should also strengthen you against temptation because there is no such thing as a “secret sin.” It is amazing how we can deceive ourselves into thinking we can do something “when no one is looking” or “no one will know.” This presumed secrecy about sin gives it so much power! But what if you never forgot that God is always watching you?! Not to condemn you but because He loves you. . .
“I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me. . . Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord” (Jer 16:17; 23:24).
Men, Jesus Christ is right beside you when you are on the Internet. Would He like what you are looking at? . . . Again, never forget that God is always watching you. Not to condemn you, but to strengthen you and comfort you because He loves you. [1]
So what happens when your Father sees you committing sin with a wicked woman on the Internet? First, you hurt Him. You hurt the One who loves you, and has done more for you, than anyone in the world. We know that our sin affects our Father. “The LORD saw that the human beings on the earth were very wicked and that everything they thought about was evil. He was sorry he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain” (Gen 6:5-6 NCV). Your pleasure with pornography causes pain for the most powerful person in the Universe because He has adopted you as His son.
Have you read the OT Prophets? God expressed a great deal of deep hurt when His people chose to love idols more than Him. It is because God loves you that He feels hurt by your idolatrous sexual sin. The God of the Universe has humbled Himself to be hurt by you. And He would tell you the same things He told the Israelites:
You have committed adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshiped idols and have been unfaithful to me. . . You have left me and climbed into bed with these detestable gods. You have committed yourselves to them. You love to look at their naked bodies. (Isa 57:7-8)
This is what God would say to you about your spiritual prostitution and idolatry with willing, wicked naked women on the Internet. He is hurt by your sin, not only because of what it does to you, but because of what it does to His daughter, your wife.
It is because of His love for you, and His disgust over what He sees you doing with willing, wicked women on the Internet, that your Father warns He will punish you. Paul warned Christians:
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God . . . The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. (1 Thess 4:3-6 NIV)
God’s forgiveness of your sins does not mean He will not discipline and punish you for your sins. And the Apostle Paul warned of this particularly in the case of sexual sin. There are many promises in the Bible that God wants you to believe. And one of them is this: “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. . . The Lord will punish all those who commit such [sexual] sins, as we told you and warned you before” (1 Thess 4:3, 6). Is the pleasure you experience from porn worth the pain you will experience from your Lord?
As illustrated in chapter 5 of this study, King David would respond with a resounding, “No!” The punishments God gave him and his family far outweighed whatever temporary pleasure he got that night with Bathsheba. God disciplined David for his sexual sin and He will discipline you as well. And harder than you might think. Elsewhere in the Christian Essentials we have written regarding divine discipline:
Rather than punishing you for your sin, your Dad is usually protecting you from the potential effects of your sin. Many times in your life, your sin should have hurt you and others much more than it did. This is because God was protecting you. It is also because your Dad knows that treating your sin with grace is usually more productive than punishment. God’s love and patience motivates you to love Him more than fearing Him. . .
When God does discipline us, He uses various ways. First, the painful conviction you experience after sinning is a powerful motivator to not sin. Secondly, your Dad may simply choose not to protect you from the usually painful consequences of your sin. Therefore, the burden of your conscience about your sin, and the naturally painful consequences of your sin, are usually very effective as God’s normal methods of discipline.
Like a good human father, more strict discipline is used by your Dad as a last option. This can occur when a Christian becomes addicted to a very destructive sin like illegal drug abuse or sexual immorality (cf. Rev 2:20-22). Very painful consequences may be the only thing that will help such a person stop their behavior. In such cases, a Christian will be thankful for God’s discipline because of how much they hate their sin and the destruction it is causing in their life, and for people they love. But even in the very rare times when your Dad painfully punishes His children, He does it with compassion and sadness, never anger. [2]
“Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live” (Eph 4:30). Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure.
Looking at naked, disgusting, demon-possessed destroyers of your life and wife hurts the Holy Spirit in you
Not only do you cause emotional pain for God the Father but God the Holy Spirit. He lives inside of you and is forced to be with you, even when you do the most degrading and vile things like look at pornography. How do you think He feels about that?
This is why Scripture says: “Do not bring sorrow [lypeite] to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). The Greek word used here for how the Holy Spirit feels when you are having cybersex with demon-possessed destroyers of your wife and life means “to cause severe mental or emotional distress.” [3]
Of course, God the Holy Spirit is willing to experience pain in order to seal you as belonging to God and preserve you from losing your salvation. But the Holy One suffers intensely when you are lusting after willing, wicked naked women on your computer screen. You can suppress and ignore His pain while you are doing it, but you sure feel it afterwards.
“Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live” (Eph 4:30). Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure.
Looking at naked, disgusting, demon-possessed destroyers of your wife and life makes you a worshipper and imitator of demons and pleases and glorifies the Devil
In Corinth, some of the Christians were merely offering food to idols at religious festivals. Sound harmless? Not at all. The Apostle warned, “I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you [Christians] to participate with demons” (2 Cor 10:20). When a Christian offered a sacrifice of just some food to a statue, Paul said they were worshipping demons.
What would he say about offering yourself to some willing, wicked, naked, demonic woman on a screen? You are worshipping demons and acting like a demon. And that is why demons are hunting you through the Internet. To make you worship and love Satan through worshipping and loving the women who serve him.
In chapter 3 of this study we wrote:
Remember, in your struggle against willing wicked women on the Internet, you “are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). Those women on the screen are not just women. They have devoted themselves to depravity and serve demons. And those demons are wanting to use them to get to you.
Of course they look enticing. “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). But believe it brother, there are demons behind those exciting and enticing women. With pornography you must see through their physical skin and see demons. If you saw the spiritual reality of pornography you would see what God sees: demonically controlled people having sex. In other words, pornography is demons having sex with demons. And that is gross and repulsive.
What God said to His OT people about idolatry is true of His people who partake in pornography:
They mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs. They worshiped their idols, which led to their downfall. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. . . They defiled themselves by their evil deeds, and their love of idols was adultery in the Lord’s sight. (Ps 106:34-37, 39)
When you worship the demons of pornography, you are in danger of sacrificing your sons and daughters as well, because of the harm and hurt you will bring to their lives. And your “love” for those demon-possessed destroyers of your wife and life is “adultery in the Lord’s sight.”
“Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live” (Eph 4:30). Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure.
Looking at naked, disgusting, demon-possessed destroyers of your life and wife denies you the right to say you love God more than those women
Cybersex means you love those willing, wicked, naked, demonic women more than you love God. It means in that moment, you love Satan more than your Savior. For that moment, you are accepting from Satan something you desire more than pleasing your God. That’s just the truth as even God sees it when you choose them over Him. And isn’t it a horrible thing to have to admit that you love the pleasure of sin more than the One who died for those very same sins? The Bible is even stronger. It says you HATE God when you love sin:
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world [and the pleasures it offers] is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? (James 4:4-5)
When David admitted his sexual immorality he said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam 12:13). He sinned against Bathsheba. He killed her husband Uriah. But David understood that first and foremost he had sinned against His God.
The greatest claim a man can make is: “I love God more than anyone or anything.” If you are committing sexual immorality you have to admit that there are some things that you love, serve, and worship more than God. Your Father is asking you to love Him more than the temporary, harmful, slave-making, devil-worshipping pleasure of pornography. Will you do it?
Job said to his friends: “Till I die, I will not deny my integrity” (Job 27:5). And God said to Satan: “He has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause” (Job 2:3). Will you determine for God to be able to say the same about you for the rest of your life? Because if you do not have integrity, if you cannot say you love God, nothing else in your life matters. Think about it. Nothing else matters.
“Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live” (Eph 4:30). Looking at pornography will give God pain and the Devil pleasure.
– Return to the beginning and answer the questions there.
– Recite Matthew 5:27-28 and Proverbs 7:26 from memory.
– Memorize Proverbs 6:26 in the translation above or another.