Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave some pointed teaching on morality, telling those in lust to pluck out their eyes.
Could he have been serious? Today, a look into Matthew chapter 5 at some really tough love from the Son of God. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you're talking about doing whatever it takes to stop viewing porn. That's tough when it's a mouse click away. You know, Dave, we're living at a time when many Christians have no guardrails. They think that they can view whatever they want to view. And they don't understand that unless we are blood earnest, we cannot win the war against addictions, particularly pornography. So you're absolutely right.
There are guardrails that have to be put in place. Parents, please watch what your children are watching. My heart breaks. I read statistics that indicate that children are coming across pornography at the age of 9 and 10 and 11. They're going to be struggling with this addiction for the rest of their life. And that's why I believe that this message is so incredibly important on breaking that addiction. And I've written a book entitled Seven Snares of the Enemy, Breaking Free from the Devil's Grip.
Critical. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. You simply go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. And of course, I'm going to be giving you this contact info again at the end of this message. But please let us pray to God that will give us the wisdom and the strength to break the power of pornography. Jesus is saying that if you find yourself falling into the pit and your eye is causing it, gouge it out and cast it from you.
If that's your problem, take care of your eye. And then he uses the hand, which is also used, particularly I think of women who are affected by tender caresses, usually coupled with sweet words, often lying words. But nonetheless, Jesus said, if that's your problem, cut it off. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, he's not speaking literally, is he? No, of course he's not speaking literally. You could cut out your right eye and still lust with your left, for example. You could cut off your right hand and still, and still use your left.
No, he's not talking literally. But what Jesus is saying is literally true, isn't it? It would be better to arrive in heaven with one eye than to be in hell with two eyes. It would be better, you know, to arrive in heaven and have to be left-handed for the rest of your life because your right hand is gone. It would be better to arrive in heaven maimed than to be in hell whole, wouldn't it? You know what Jesus is saying in the strongest possible language? He's saying to me and to you, do whatever you have to do. Take drastic measures so that you may not keep falling into that deep well of oblivion and moral darkness.
Whatever it is, do it. One day I was meditating on this passage of scripture and I began to ask myself a question. A question I began to ask is what would it be like actually in the days before anesthetic to have your hand cut off or your eye gouged out? What would it be like? Well, very profoundly, very profoundly I concluded first of all that it would be very painful, very painful. Just imagine having your hand cut off.
Just saw it off. Ouch. Imagine an eye being cut out. Let's suppose I took someone here who's sitting near the front and took a knife and just went like this and turned it and the eye plopped down on their lap. That would hurt, wouldn't it? Thank you for your lighthearted affirmation. And you know that that's the way, that's the kind of pain that you might have to go through to finally be free from that secret snare. Did you know that?
And by the way, though, we'll talk about this next week. There are some of you who are in relationships that are sinful and you've made such a commitment to that person and maybe even sexually bonded to them and you say, I know that this is wrong but I can't get out of it. Like a man I told, I said, you know, it's like cutting out your eye. It is like chopping off your arm. Of course it hurts. It's painful. But Jesus says, do it.
Do it. For some of you it may mean changing jobs. If you're a businessman traveling and you're staying in hotels where you can have all of the movies that you like and then beyond that there's that whole shadowy world that you can get involved in because you have anonymity. I'll tell you something, we need to pray for our business people who live in that world with all of its temptations. It might be best for you to switch jobs, to give it up. You say, oh, I can't do that. I have a family to support. Well tell me, what would you rather do? Would you rather give up your job or have your right eye cut out and your left hand cut off?
What's your preference? Some of you need to go through that difficult, difficult experience of saying this is a part of me but it has to go. I remember a college student who said to me, you know, just gathering together all of my pornographic pictures and throwing them all away, he says, it was as if there was a part of me that had been my life. Yes, of course. Jesus says, do it.
Do it. You know, there's another part to the pain here and that is the need for you to share it with someone significant. The need, the need for you to simply say, look, look, I have a problem. And you share it with someone who is willing to accept you and to affirm you as a human being worthy of being loved and worthy of, of God's love even though this is a snare into which you have fallen. You know, when Jesus talks about the works of darkness, what he means is the works done in secret. Now, let's remember this as we talk about these snares is that the thing that fuels them is the hidden shame that causes them. I've known many instances when finally there was some sense of sharing and we could talk about it and it would be out in the open how helpful that is to those who struggle. And Jesus said, he said, whatever it takes, just do it. Yes, it's painful, but do it. Second characteristic as I was meditating on this as this commitment to associations, purity and associations is that it is thorough.
It has to be thorough. Now, let's suppose you're going for surgery and you have a cancerous growth and the doctor says, well, you know what we decided to do? We decided to take just three quarters of it this time and then we leave the other quarter for some other time because we thought that what we ought to really do is to give you the option of still having a little bit of cancer. That's the way we're always dealing with sin, isn't it? I counseled a man one time, said to him, now let's just suppose that God were to just come and just reduce thoroughly and totally of this struggle, this addiction, and you never struggled with it again.
It would be gone. Would you be willing to accept that? And he thought a moment and says, well, I think so.
But he said, I guess I have to tell you honestly, I'd prefer to keep my options open. And it's those options you see, those options that keep making us fall back into the pit. It was Tozer who said that that part of us that we rescue from the cross, you know the part that we take from the cross and the part that we hide, that then becomes the seat of our struggles, right? And there are many people who want to deal with their problems but to leave the roots in the ground.
We need to have opportunity for something to still grow out of this because the thought of cold turkey is overwhelming, overwhelming. But it needs to be thorough once your eye is out and your arm is off. I like to tell the story in Canada, true story of a man who was staying with a doctor and the doctor had a call and had to leave and said, help yourself with anything that's in the fridge. The man opened the fridge and there wrapped in plastic was a human hand.
He told me, he said, for some reason I saw that and I wasn't hungry anymore, he said. It's a little too late, you know, when your hand is wrapped in plastic to say, you know, on second thought I'm not so sure whether we should have done this. At this point I'd like to say what I've said before that if you're going to jump across a chasm it is much better to do it in one long jump than in two short ones, remember. Sin needs radical surgery. For some of you it may be to get rid of your TV. You say, well, that's really radical. Yeah, well, again, what would you rather have?
Keep your television set and watch it with one eye? What's your options here? Jesus is saying whatever needs to be done you have to do it. You have to do it. Some of you struggle with cruising.
You know all the hot spots in Chicago. You know the ritual that you go through. Some of you bless you.
What you need to do is to finally say it's over, it's over. Let me say thirdly, it dawned on me that it's really worthwhile isn't it? You know if you have surgery even if your eye is cut out I would rather lose an eye than lose my life.
And if you have a hand cut off and you had a growth or a tumor you say, boy, goodbye to a hand but thank God I still have my life. It's worth it. Oh, it was painful.
I wondered whether or not I was going to live through it. Thank God it was worth it. The very same way, did you know that it's worth it?
It's worth it. It is better to live with unfulfilled desires and be a friend of God and walk with God with a clear conscience than it is to fulfill those desires outside of the will of God. And do your own thing. I think of what Walter Trobisch said, the task we have to face is the same whether we are married or single to live fulfilled lives in light of and in spite of unfulfilled desires.
Because you know what happens though, don't you? God begins to become your desire. He fills up the vacuum. He takes away all those false promises that has all of that, what shall we say, all of that shame and everything else involved. He takes care of that and as therefore God becomes what we want. And there is an experience in which you say God is my all in all.
So it's worth it. Better to live single and frustrated and when I say that I don't mean to imply that all singles are frustrated. Many of you are very, very happily adjusted and you're certainly a lot happier than some married folks I know. But it is better to be single and frustrated if that's what's happening than it is somehow to fulfill those frustrations and to simply say I have this coming to me and all of life has passed me by and I have to get in on some pleasure because I'm getting older and look at where this is going. No, no, no, no.
Jesus said it is better. You look at that person who has just had surgery. His arm is off, his eye is out. He intended to be a baseball player. He intended to be an airline pilot. He doesn't have those options anymore. Yes, he has unfulfilled desires but Jesus said it is better.
It is better. You say, Pastor Lutzer, how do we honestly and truly get out from under the shadows? Couple of thoughts. First of all, you know you really do have to come to the light. You have to come to the light.
One day in Washington DC a man said you're flying to Chicago tonight and you don't know my name and I won't tell it to you but I need to talk with you and we took a walk around the block using his umbrella because it was raining. He said I want you to know that I am a Christian and he said I spent $400 a month on pornography and he said also I want you to know that nobody knows about it except me and God. I reminded him that there actually was somebody else that knew.
You know who I'm talking about? The devil always shows up and things like that. Do you think that man can get out of it alone? No, he's cried to God a hundred times and a hundred and one times he goes back. Of course he has to come out from under the shadows. He needs significant people who can still affirm him as a worthy human being and say you know you've fallen into this snare. You've fallen into this snare but we're here to help you.
There is a way out and you can begin to establish those relationships and I hope here at the Moody Church there's a sense of openness in which we can say yeah hey we're struggling. I kind of pity the man who cannot share his struggles with his wife. If I see you with one of these magazines again I'm out of here.
As a matter of fact what are you some kind of a pervert? Those are the exact words of a woman I know speaking to a husband I know when she discovered his pornography. Just think of what she did.
Number one she took it all personally as an attack against her and in a sense it was but in another sense it wasn't. We'll leave that on the table but secondly all that she does is contribute and add to the shame that he's already experiencing. The shame that's had him bound.
It just now the most significant person in his life has just shamed him when he's already drowning in it. Think of how different it would have been if she just said well you know what you do really hurts me but I want you to know I love you and you're a worthy human being. You're worthy of my love and you're worthy of God's love. Let's let's figure out how we can work at this together because you fell into that snare and I have my sins too. Let's work together on on being the people that God wants us to be.
Think of how differently their relationship would have ended. First of all you have to come to the light. Secondly of course and perhaps it should have been my first point you really do need to know what it is to have a cleansed conscience. Come now let us reason together says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. Oh I say to those of you I say to those of you living years and years and years with secrets I say to you the scripture is very clear as far as the east is from the west so far he removed our transgressions from us like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitied them that fear him for he knoweth our frame he rememberth that we are dust. He knows that these snares are the very things that we fall into willingly fall into unless by his grace he comes to prevent us and to help us he knows that he is not there to condemn you he's there to redeem you and some of you have never trusted Christ as savior you've never believed on him as savior and transferred your trust to him and that's the beginning point for a relationship not with a quote higher power but a higher power who is God Jehovah who forgives sin and then what you need to do and there's more that could be said but what you need to do is to have some kind of a plan of attack you know imagine you live in this city and the enemy comes over the same place in the wall all the time all the time you exactly know where he's coming from the speed with which he's coming and what weapons he's going to use and you never build the wall or make it strong in that area you just say well you know the wall is broken down and there's nothing I can do you have to be ready one day a young man came to me a fine young man who was who is a what shall we say occasional user never bought anybody looked at magazines and how he'd struggled and promised himself a thousand times he loved God he loved the people of God and was being used by the Lord wonderful to know that we don't have to be perfect before God uses us but I said look I said why don't we make a deal okay here's here's the deal I want to I want you to make a promise to me and this is what the promise is going to be I want you to take five verses of scripture and I helped to scratch out what the references were I said I want you to take these five verses of scripture and know them absolutely cold verses like blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God verses like Philippians where it says that you know whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are honest think on these things first Peter you know abstain from fleshly lust that war against the soul verses that say the gone Satan for it is written etc and I said what I'd like you to do is to memorize these verses cold and then before you pick up one of those magazines what I want you to do is to is to quote all those verses meaningfully and after you've quoted them once I want you to go and do it again and again and again this will take you a few minutes but do it five times wouldn't you know it a great temptation came to him a pornographic magazine was wrongly delivered to his mailbox in the apartment building now he had it in his hand no one there to see what he would look at but he had made a promise and a promise is a promise is a promise so he began to go through this blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are good report and he went through those verses and then he started and he went through them again and again and again he told me later he was able to take the magazine wrap it up rather than give it to the person I guess to whom it was supposed to be delivered he did throw it away without opening it now does that mean that the struggle with pornography is over no because tomorrow will be another test but at least he had a plan the Bible talks about the motions of sin what do you do when suddenly you you feel this sense of saying this is what I want to do what what is your plan wherewithal shall a man keep his way by taking heed thereto according to his word well it's been a longer message than I planned it to be this was supposed to be 20 minutes and I think it I could be over that by now how would you like to have a martyr's crown I've often wondered about that I thought you know I'd like to have a martyr's crown but I guess I can't have one because I live in America where we have freedom of religion ah isn't that tough we have freedom of religion therefore no martyr's crown you can have a martyr's crown the Bible says in the book of Revelation be faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life and the very same expression occurs in James chapter 1 where it says blessed is the man who endureth temptation for when he is tried assume that he endures it properly he shall receive the crown of life of course it's a battle because the devil is all wrapped up in this but Jesus would say whatever the spirit says to you just do it you know folks as I'm thinking about this subject and other addictions I'm reminded of the fact that the body of Jesus Christ plays a part in our walk with God and one of the best ways we can fight the addiction of pornography or any other addiction is to connect with other believers to have a sense of accountability and honesty and I've written a book entitled seven snares of the enemy breaking free from the devil's grip I think that this would be a great book for groups to study together to honestly deal with issues some of which may not apply to everyone in the group but others in the group will identify with one or two of these addictions in some way and even if you don't have these addictions you know people who do that's why we're making this resource available for you for a gift of any amount it can be yours simply go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 now because I believe so deeply that this message is needed today especially today I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but I want to thank you in advance for helping us with this ministry you've heard me say it before we're around the world because of you here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone right now and call us at 1-888-218-9337 I need to emphasize it is possible for us to live pure in an impure world but not without a fight and I believe that this book will point you in the right direction you can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 extramarital sex is a choice that can ruin our lives and the lives of others too many people even Christians find themselves paying a high price the sexual revolution has a dark side and we'd better count the cost facing up to disease abortion divorce and fractured families next time on running to win don't miss another trap Christians can fall into sexual affairs the poisoned oasis thanks for listening running to win is sponsored by the moody church
