Fighting like a man against sexual sin. That is a topic we'll discuss today, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian Realview is a listener-supported radio ministry. Our website is thechristianwheelview.org and the rest of our contact information will be given throughout today's program.
As always, thank you for your notes of encouragement, financial support, and lifting us up in prayer. The Apostle Peter was inspired by God to write, Be of sober spirit. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, proved prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him.
firm in the faith. Knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren. who are in the world. That's from 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and 9. The devil is the believer's great adversary, and he has a singular mission.
to devour the Christian by tempting us to sin against God. Satan uses the fallen world and our sinful flesh to great effect. One of his favorite means of destruction is corrupting God's gift and design of sex for one man, one woman marriage. into a litany of perversions. fornication Adultery.
Lust. Pornography. Homosexuality, and more. Consistent victory in this never ending war Is not simply a matter of having an accountability partner or putting a filter on your device. No.
This calls for transformation of the heart. in comprehensive preparation and plans of action. From being born again. to pursuing sanctification. to employing the supernatural resources God provides.
Emile Zewain, also known as EZ, President of Living Waters Ministry. Has written an excellent book titled Fight Like a Man, a bold biblical battle plan for personal purity. He joins us today for part one of a two-part series on this important topic of sexual purity. Fight Like a Man is our new featured resource and we will let you know how you can order a copy today for a donation of any amount to the Christian Royal View. Let's get to the interview with Emile Zwain on Fighting Like a Man Against Sexual Sin.
Easy, thank you for coming on the Christian Roeview Radio program today. Just tell us about your background. how God saved you and what your life is like now. Yeah, David, this is a treat for me. Before we came on, you and I were talking about how we'd both heard of each other for probably decades now, but have never connected.
And it's a joy to finally put a face and a voice to the name. You and I, of course, both have two very dear people to us in common, and that's Todd Friel. and Ray Comfort. And I'm always into extremes. You know, Todd is freakishly tall, Ray is adorably short.
And so it's great to be connected to those two guys. And I don't even know if you know this, David, but I'm the president of Living Waters here, but Ray happens to be my father-in-law. And what a lot of people don't know is raised of Jewish descent. I'm from Lebanon, I'm Arab descent. And we often say that together we are the solution to the Midis crisis.
There's so much peace between us. In fact, we're going to start a new mattress company called Easy Comfort and just call it a day.
So, yeah, so I had a pretty crazy upbringing. I was born in Lebanon, immigrated to the US in 1980. And coming from a war-torn country, I had a little chip on my shoulder from the outset. I had a little kind of a soldier mentality.
So, I started getting into trouble early on in school, getting in fights and stealing and all kinds of chaos. You know, when I was about eight or nine, I did my first Holy Communion in the Catholic Church and decided to reform my life.
So I stopped lying and stealing and cheating and robbing banks, the whole deal, all at eight years of age. And then peer pressure set in. I had my long list of do's and don'ts and things I would never do, things I'd always do. But as peer pressure set in, that became a distant memory. And really, when I hit high school, man, I plunged headlong into sin and immorality.
Before I turned 16, I had already been kicked out of two high schools. I'd become a gang member with the Crips. And I attempted to commit suicide in front of my family. But on that divine August evening in 1991, God reached down into time and space, grabbed a hold of the heart of this wretched sinner, opened my eyes to the truth of the gospel, and like radically, radically transformed my life. Got back into my high school where I was my freshman class president, where I got kicked out.
I mean, they kicked out the class president. That's how bad I was. Went from a 0.32 grade point average at the end of my sophomore year, which is four F's and two D minuses. I get back. I go from that 0.32 GPA to a 4.0, start teaching Bible study on campus, graduated, went to.
A Christian university biblical studies and theology major. I ended up co-planting a church at 20, which was crazy. I wouldn't advise that. And then ended up meeting this crazy little Kiwi named Ray Comfort and met his daughter, took one look at me, dropped to her knee, proposed, and here we are now. Ended up coming on with Living Waters 22 years ago now, believe it or not.
That's my story in a nutshell. That's an amazing before and after picture. Just a little follow-up. Who explained the gospel to you, and how did they explain it to you? I grew up with a friend in my neighborhood who came from a Christian family, and they had taken me to church a few times, attempted to share the gospel with me, but it just never.
It's like I was so blind, it never penetrated. But finally, that friend invited me to an evangelistic event. And it was a big event held in a big amphitheater. And I went with them, and that was the night. It was like, boom.
The Scales fell off my eyes, and I finally understood what the cross was all about. I understood why Christ died. I understood the severity of my sin, His grace, His mercy. And Second Corinthians 5 says, If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away, all things are new.
And it was like that. It was just. And stead. Everything about me changed that night. 33 years.
ago, never been the same. And I can still see the smile on your face looking back with such gratefulness at how God changed your life. Emil Zwain, who goes by EZ, is our guest today here on the Christian Worldview. EZ, let's get into your really excellent new book. It's our featured resource here on the program: Fight Like a Man: A Bold Biblical Battle Plan for Personal Purity.
On page 18, you write, unfortunately, real men are in short supply today. Cultural theologian P. Andrew Sandlin couldn't have said it better. One of the most tragic cultural shifts of the U.S. in the last quarter century is the loss of rugged.
Manliness. In my experience, most young men, including young Christian men, suffer from laziness. Lack of ambition. obsession with cheap entertainment. avoid of chivalry or protection of women.
In a whiny, self-centered, non-risk-taking disposition. And yet, God's word exhorts us to pursue a higher standard, you write, the standard of real manhood. You quote 1 Corinthians 16:13: Be watchful, stand firm in the faith. Act like men. be strong.
So has a decrease in manliness easy? Led to an increase in the focus of your book, Sexual Immorality. Indisputably, David, indisputably. When you have a Supreme Court justice nominee. who cannot define what a woman is when asked that In a confirmation hearing, I mean, where are we, man?
There are times I step back and I'm like, we can't really be living in these days. If you told someone this, 10 years ago, let's go even further, 20 years. They look at you like you're insane. What are you talking about? What do you mean, someone can't tell you what a woman is, right?
And obviously, by extension, we see the same thing happening with manhood. Yesterday, I was reading about a guy who sits on some important committee who identifies as a turtle. This is where we're living now. And so, yeah, absolutely. When you can't define what manhood is, then you're gonna lose.
The consciousness of what biblical manhood is in a society, and the ramifications for that are disastrous. And the reason why that's important is because You have to know what a man is in order to act like one. And what is a man? You know, when I talk about manhood in the book, and of course, the title gives it away that I talk about that: fight like a man. And you cited the scripture there: we're called to act like men, equip ourselves like men.
Manhood doesn't just imply masculinity in the sense of someone who's strong or maybe athletic or deep voiced or thick bearded or whatever. Of course, those things apply, but manhood really. Contains and implies someone who is devoted, dedicated, who has character, integrity, loyalty, a willingness to fight, a willingness to lay down their lives for causes greater than themselves and for the love of others and for the glory of God. And so, when men don't do that in the arena of sexual purity. you're going to have the outcome that we have today.
which is a massive pandemic that is ravaging Families, that is ravaging men, that is ravaging children, it's ravaging our society, it's ravaging the church. And so my call in the book. to men is, hey, you need to stand up and fight. like a man in this arena. Emile Zawain is our guest.
He is the author of a book titled Fight Like a Man, A Bold Biblical Battle Plan for Personal Purity. We are inundated, as you just mentioned, Easy, with sexual temptation in our society. Name the location, it's hard to even escape. Whether it's on television, the internet, billboards, just everywhere. It's omnipresent.
Why do, let's say, men in general, it's also for women, but the purpose of this conversation, we're talking more about men. Why do men in general and and Christian men in particular. Struggle so much with this sexual sin, aside from the fact that it's just omnipresent.
Well, it's because sadly, most men have. A peacetime mentality. when they are living in wartime. David, imagine a soldier. being deluded into thinking that he is on a luxury cruise ship.
Heading for the shores of Bora Bora to an exotic resort. when in reality he's on a Higgins boat heading for the shores of World War II Normandy. What's this guy going to look like? He's going to be sauntering off the Higgins boat. Clad in a bathrobe, some fluffy slippers, a remote in one hand, and a latte in the other hand.
As he just walks out into the midst of the theater of war, and he's going to get smoked. And so men are just kind of like, they're chill, they're relaxed. They're like, oh, yeah, you know, and sometimes like, yeah, I got to deal with this, but all my friends do it. And it's so common. And it's so, so there's this lax mentality, and they're getting smoked on the battlefield of sexual purity.
And so I'm trying to help men recognize it until they change their mindset. And recognize that there is a real enemy out there seeking to destroy them. A real soldier is going to know who his enemy is, he's going to know what the enemy's battle plan is against him, and he's going to have a counterattack. And that's what the book does. It hits that.
Sweet spot of helping men recognize that reality. And you know, I ask men, I say, look, if someone came up to your wife, Hold their fist back and was about to pop her in the face. Would you jump in front of her, absorb that blow, and then defend her?
Someone held a gun at your kids, and they're about to pull the trigger. Would you not jump in front of them and catch that bullet if you could, and if you lived, defend them? I mean, which man would say, no, not really, I don't care. Of course not. but yet we're not willing to fight.
With that tenacity when it comes to protecting our family. And our children, and even if we're not married, other believers and the testimony of the gospel and what have you, we're not willing to fight that way in order to protect them from the ravages of sexual sin in our own lives. And so it's a clarion call to men, rise up. You've been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He's given you all things that pertain to life and godliness.
You have to determine to access those things and fight. Easy, on page 51 of your book, Fight Like a Man, you write: when speaking of sexual sin, Paul the Apostle said this in 1 Corinthians 6:18. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. God's word is also perfectly clear that when it says that quote fornicators and adulterers God will judge Hebrews 13:4 and that the quote sexually immoral shall have their part in the lake Which burns with fire and brimstone.
Revelation 21, verse 8. You also quote Ephesians 5, verses 5 through 7. 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. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, this immorality, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore, do not be partakers. with them. And I read all those because in scripture there is so much on moral purity, sexual immorality. It's a very serious subject. Sin.
Perhaps you can define What exactly is sexual immorality? Because we tend to have definitions that get around that. Define what it is. And why don't we hear very many churches and pastors preaching? preaching In favor of moral purity and against sexual immorality, including pornography.
That verse in 1 Corinthians 6.18 is very important. Because Paul there makes it very clear that Sexual immorality is a distinct sin that carries with it. Massive ramifications. You know, we often quote the mantra as Christians: sin is sin. And we're right in a sense, in that all sin is a violation of God's law, and it's serious.
But not all sin is sin equally in the sense of its egregiousness, its impact, its ramifications. If you ask me to help you move house, David, and I say, oh man, I'm busy this weekend and I'm really not, that's a lie. That's serious. It's a sin. No question about it.
But it is different in terms of its egregiousness, impact, and ramifications if I go and murder your entire family and burn the house down with them.
So, Paul is making it very clear that sexual immorality, it's distinct. He's talking about, hey, every sin, right? He's talking about every sin, it's outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. There's a distinction there. When we look at Romans chapter one, sexual immorality is part and parcel with reprobation.
It's like this is a given-over type of sin, right? And so we have to recognize that. And yeah, sexual immorality is basically, in essence, any unlawful sexual. activity. Unlawful, meaning anything that violates what God has revealed in his word is permissible in the arena.
Of sex, which he created, which he designed. It's wonderful and beautiful and amazing, but Satan has twisted it, the world has tainted it, our flesh has perverted it. And so anything outside the confines of Intimacy between one man and one woman, a husband and wife, in the bonds of marriage. is sexual morality. I mean, and Jesus made it clear: it's not just the physical act.
If you look at a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery already with her in your heart. And so whether it's lust. Pornography. fornication Adultery. homosexuality And any other form.
a forbidden sexual activity. It is sexual immorality. And The reason why We don't hear it addressed often from pulpits. Is because sadly, Many people in leadership are afraid of what people will think. It's an uncomfortable subject.
And the statistics tell us that 75% of men. Forty percent of women And 18% of pastors within the church. are entangled in pornography. I mean, 75% of men. 40% of women, you know, back in the day, it was a rare thing that women would get into it, but now, The curiosity, why are so many men into this coupled with the accessibility?
have led led it into that arena. And 18% of pastors, I think it's a lot more than that because many of them won't really be candid about it. But it's tragic. It's destroying the church. You know, it comes up when a pastor falls, someone that's well known, we talk about it, but then it goes back under the radar.
And the reason they often don't talk about it is because they're worried about what people will think. They're afraid of maybe the pews clearing. And it's uncomfortable. And I think sometimes a lot of pastors are struggling with it to one degree or another themselves, and they don't want to. have to touch on it because it hits a nerve in their own heart.
So, I think all of those combine. And David, let me just say this before we go any further. And that's this: look, the book is a book of hope. It's not a beatdown book. It's all about how there is victory in Christ.
That no matter how far men have gone into this sin, they can be delivered from it by the grace of God. It's not about the arm of the flesh and us doing it ourselves. It's not moralism. It's God's grace and all that he supplied you to be able to do it. And so there's hope.
And there's grace. But men have to man up and stand up and say, I'm owning this, I'm calling it what it is, I'm not making any excuses. And I'm going to deal with it. Yeah, and you're right about that. This is a very substantive book.
Yes, it's a bold biblical plan for personal purity, as the subtitle suggests, but it really is a book about living a Christian life as an overcomer. How to be a strong and vibrant believer is what this book's about. The title is Fight Like a Man, and our guest is Emile Zwain, Goes by Easy. He's the author of the book and also the president of Living Waters, the co-host of the Living Waters podcast, and lots of other things. You can find links to him at our website, thechristianworldview.org.
Again, the name of the book is Fight Like a Man by our guest today, Emile Zwain. It's soft cover, 272 pages, and retails for $17.99. It's our new featured resource, and for a limited time, you can receive it for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 188-646-2233. Write to box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331.
More coming up with Emil Zwain on sexual purity. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Worldview Radio Program. If you are doing some charitable giving at the end of this year, we would be grateful if you considered supporting the Christian worldview. By God's grace, the radio program reaches across the country and Internet each week with a mission to impact listeners with the biblical world view in the gospel. You can make a one-time donation or become a Christian Realview partner who gives regularly and receives the Christian Realview Journal Print Publication.
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We really wanted to put Christ front and center at Christmas. And they actually engineered a wooden manger that's small enough to hide. And then I wrote a family devotional with 25 devotions for every day in December leading up to Christmas, including Christmas Day, that you can do in about seven minutes. And the devotions are just loaded with the deity of Christ and the gospel. That was Pastor Grant Castleberry describing Manger in Danger, a new daily devotional and game for families with children aged 4 to 12.
Manger and Danger retails for $40 plus shipping. We are offering it for a donation of $30 or more to the Christian Worldview. To order, go to thechristianwheelview.org, call 188-646-2233, or write to box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Welcome back to the Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton.
Be sure to visit thechristianworldview.org where you can sign up for our weekly email and the Christian Worldview Journal print publication, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Our guest today is Emile Zwain, President of Living Waters and author of Fight Like a Man, a bold biblical battle plan for personal purity. Is he a portion of the book? deals with this triad. Of the world, the flesh.
and the devil. And you do that to, I think, help readers understand. The process, I guess you could say, of how sexual temptation. becomes sexual sin. in how the devil and the flesh and the world works on us.
So why is that helpful to understand? how the world, the flesh, and the devil work on us to have us succumb to sexual sin. It goes back to what I referenced earlier, and that is knowing our enemies, knowing their. Tactics against us and having a battle plan as a counterattack. And I think it's important to realize that I think scripturally we do see those three enemies: the devil, the world, the flesh.
And yet, I think, as Dr. John Stree said in his very powerful book on the subject, the flesh is really the real enemy, our fallen, sinful nature. The devil and the world are outward. Adversaries of opportunity that capitalize on the true condition, which is our fallen state, and they will be allies with the flesh. We have to realize that there's no one to really blame but ourselves in our own sinfulness and fallenness and propensity towards sin.
But those are the real outward enemies of opportunity. And so we have to, yeah, we have to know who they are and what their battle plan is against us. You know, I begin in the book with the devil, and I think rightly so, because we see him as the first enemy of man. Adam and Eve were created. in a perfect state in the garden.
He himself was a fallen being, of course, having sinned against God through the sin of pride. And I'll ascend to the throne of God. I will become like the most high, right? And so he had a tactic against Adam and Eve, and it's the same one he still uses against us. It began with discontent.
Did God say you can't eat of every tree? Whereas in reality, God gave them the entire garden, every single tree, except for one. And David, think about it. How visible would the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Ben from space.
I saw the widest tree in the world in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. This thing was massive. It was like 316 feet in circumference. But let's say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a thousand feet in circumference. Let's say it was 300 feet high, right?
How visible would it be from space? Not at all. It'd be totally invisible. It'd be like a speck of dust. God gave them dominion over the entire planet.
And then he said, but I just restrict you from this one, relatively speaking, microscopic thing. But Satan draws their attention toward it in such a way to where it creates discontentment in their heart. Like if you remember Haman in the book of Esther, when Mordecai went and bowed before him after he got invited to have a private banquet with the king and queen for the second time. He goes out, calls his wife and kids and friends together after he saw Haman again and was distressed after he sold with joy. And he recounts to them all the blessings he had.
And then he says this. But all of this. Avails me nothing so long as I see Haman in the king's gate. Because I can't have this one thing, everything else means nothing to me. Satan hits us with that discontent.
Then he comes at them with disbelief. Then it's well god said we'll die he said you shall not surely die So he hits them with disbelief when it came to what God said are the consequences for sin. He does the same thing with us. Oh, sexual morality. Ah, it's no big deal.
Everybody does it. There's not going to be any consequences. Whereas scripture is clear, you cited 1 Corinthians 6:18. It's a severe sin, and there are consequences. If you don't know the Lord on the day of judgment, you're going to bear radical wrath over your sexual morality.
And if you're a believer, 2 Corinthians 5, you're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Yeah, it's not a judgment under condemnation, but there will be loss of. important reward and there's going to be the discipline of the lord here on this earth So he hits us with disbelief. And finally, he hit him with deification. In fact, you will become like God.
Knowing good and evil. In other words, you will be the arbiters of what is right and wrong in your own life. And it's the same thing, David, with us. Discontentment, disbelief, deification. That's Satan attack.
I don't know if we have time to get into the others, but that's that one. And we have to counter it, we have to counter it with gratitude. We have to counter it with trust and belief in what God has said. And we have to recognize that the most foolish thing we could ever do is try to usurp. God's throne in our own lives.
That's idolatry. We now remove God from the throne of our heart, put ourselves there, and say, We know better than God. We're going to do what we want: autonomy. And that's disruptive.
So I go in detail. and tell men how they can find victory in that arena. I thought that was a particularly powerful and helpful part of the book when you went over how Satan. Tempted Eve and using discontent and disbelief and deification, and how that is such a model for how we are tempted with sexual immorality and probably other temptations as well.
So, that was really well done. Emile Zwain is our guest today here on the program. He is the author of Fight Like a Man, a bold biblical battle plan for personal purity. Easy, you mentioned the flesh and how this is really The main point that we need to focus on is not only that we have outside temptations from Satan and the world, but we have something inside of us that's pulling us to go the wrong way. And I think that can be hard for the believer to understand because, well, wait now, I've been saved and I'm a new creation.
And yet I'm still living in this flesh. And you quoted Galatians chapter five. And I just love this passage, and I'll just read just a short portion of it here where Paul writes, I say then, walk in the Spirit, he means the Holy Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh Lusts against the spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things.
that you wish. But if you are led by the Holy Spirit, you are not under the law. And then there's this list of now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry. And it goes on with this list saying that those who practice such things. Will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And it's very interesting that that list is, I don't know, 12 or 13 sins, and the first four or five have to do with the sexual realm. But before we get to that list easy, there's this war going on inside the believer between the Holy Spirit, who now indwells a believer. And yet, this unredeemed flesh. How do we understand how that actually works? That we, as believers, are new creations, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, and yet there's a part of us.
That never is redeemed, this flesh that sort of pulls against us. How does that work? We know that the three parts of salvation are justification, sanctification, glorification. And right now, we are in between, if we're believers, justification and glorification. We've been justified, we've been made right, we've received the righteousness of Christ.
We will one day be glorified and fully perfected in eternity. We will be resurrected, we'll receive new bodies, we'll be in that eternal state again where we will be sinless, as was the original. Condition of man. But right now, we're in the stage of sanctification. That's being conformed more and more into the image of Christ.
And so, in that, while we've received the Spirit of God, we still live in these fallen bodies. We still have that sinful nature that resides within us, that is the flesh, though we do now have the new man and we've been regenerated.
So, as Paul says, there is that battle: the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one another, so that you may not do that which you wish. Who is the you?
Well, the you is a newly regenerated man who's been born again, who desires to please God. You wish to please God in the spirit. But your flesh is tugging against you. Like Jesus said to the disciples when they kept falling asleep in Gethsemane: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And so we have to recognize that and to look at the solution that Paul gave us.
I say then, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And walking in the spirit, the language there carries with it the idea of being controlled and governed. by the spirit.
Well, how do we do that? We do that by engaging in the things that the Spirit of God is involved in. And when we look at scripture, we see four main things. The Spirit is involved in the Word. We know Scripture is called the sword of the Spirit.
We know the Spirit is involved in prayer. We do not know how to praise Uyout, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us. We know that the Spirit is involved in evangelism. When the Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses. And we know that the Spirit is involved in fellowship.
Scripture talks about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And yet, the problem, David, is that so many men will look at these things and they'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but. Wait, you know, but let's pause a second and evaluate what you're really saying. When someone says, Yeah, yeah, I know, prayer, you know, I need to pray, whatever, but I don't know if that'll do it.
Okay, so you're saying. In other words, uh, yeah, I don't know if talking to the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite God of the universe who holds all power in his hand, who loves me so much that he paid the highest price ever paid for anything ever purchased in the history of the universe to make me his, who cares for me infinitely. Yeah, I guess you know, talking to him, I don't know if that'll. Are we crazy? The word that's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword that's able to discern the thoughts and intents of our heart, that is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Oh yeah, I guess the word, yeah. It's insanity. Fellowship, having other saints who are indwelled by the same spirit you're indwelling in that raised Jesus from the dead, that are fellow heirs in God's kingdom, that will one day be judging angels, fellowship, you know, evangelism. Fulfilling our call as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Like, what greater honor is there than that?
To be an instrument in the hand of God, watching the Lord transform lost souls through his precious gospel?
So we need to wake up and say. We're crazy to look at that and say, ah, we're looking for the answer everywhere else to defeat the flesh. And God says, walk in the spirit, involve yourselves in the things the spirit of God is involved in. And as he empowers you and controls you through those. graces that he's provided.
You're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. He doesn't say, don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. That renders you walking in the spirit. He doesn't even pay attention to that. Walk in the spirit.
You won't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And so many need to wake up and recognize the benefits of all of those wonderful privileges we have. and enter into them with passion. Yeah, so well said. God gives us supernatural resources of the ones you just mentioned to be able to overcome the lusts of the flesh and.
The sinful temptation all around us. And thank you for emphasizing that. And that's what we're going to get into in part two of our interview is some of these supernatural resources. And this is where your book continues to be very, very helpful and biblical. Thank you for coming on the Christian Worldview Radio program today.
And we'll be looking forward to part two. Thank you, David. It was a pleasure. All right, be sure to join us next week for part two with Emile Zwain. But in the meantime, you can order Easy's book, Fight Like a Man, a bold biblical battle plan for personal purity.
It's soft cover, 272 pages, and retails for $17.99. And for a limited time, you can receive it for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll-free, triple eight-six four six-twenty two thirty-three, or write to box four zero one, Excelsior, Minnesota, five five three three one.
Next segment, we'll air a portion of session six from the Overcomer Course for Young Adults on this topic of moral purity. I'm David Wheaton. You are listening to the Christian Realview Radio Program. The first coming of Christ is the focus of the December issue of the Christian Worldview Journal. Pastor Travis Allen writes about the Magi who traveled a great distance to worship the Christ child.
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I'm David Wheaton. Today's program and past programs, along with transcripts and short takes, are available at thechristianworldview.org. While there, you can also sign up for our weekly email and the Christian Worldview Journal print publication, order resources, and support the ministry. Today's program is part one of our topic: Fight Like a Man Against Sexual Sin.
Next week our guest, Emile Zouain, will join us again for Part two. In the final segment today, though, we're going to bring you inside the North Barn at Stonehouse Farm here in Minnesota, where the Overcomer Course for Young Adults takes place each June.
so that you can hear a portion of session six that relates to our topic today. The title of the session is Embracing God's Design for Gender, Sex, Singleness, and Marriage. a most relevant topic for young adults. This message was given during the 2024 course. You'll notice that the young adults will often do their reading of the scripture passage being discussed.
So let's listen into this session. and then we'll follow up with a few comments afterward. We're going to read two stories from scripture with regard to how two notable Figures, men in scripture, dealt with sexual temptation. We're going to try to understand how Joseph in Genesis, how he overcame the temptation. Then we're going to look at another prominent man in scripture, King David, and how he was overcome by it.
So Daniel, maybe you could come up and read this next portion. from Genesis chapter 39, starting in verse one. This gives the story of Joseph. Who's been sold into slavery from his brothers? And here's where the story starts: with Joseph in Egypt.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the body guard. Bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph.
So he became a successful man. and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
Now his master saw that the Lord was with him, and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.
So Joseph found favour in his sight and became his personal servant, and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. Pause there for a second.
So Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery. They didn't like him. He was a favorite son of his father, and they hated him, and they sold him into slavery.
Some traitors took him down into Egypt. They thought they'd done away with him. But then we find here in Genesis 39 that Joseph sold into slavery. He gets hired. Again, here's God's sovereignty ordaining his life.
He gets bought. By a house of Potiphar, who's the captain of Pharaoh's guard.
So he's like in a very prominent household. In Egypt, and notice what it says there in verse 2, the Lord was with him, he became a successful man. Things are going well for Joseph so far, right? He's prospering. God is is ordaining with his path in life.
We need to be careful in life. when things are going well. There's a tendency To become complacent and let our guard down. This is a principle of sports. That maybe many of you have experienced, you've been in sports, when you're ahead.
You don't take your foot off the pedal. You keep your foot on the pedal. You don't assume it's going to continue to go as well as it's had so far. Let's go to the next verse. It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over the all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptians' house on account of Joseph.
Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that He owned. in the house and in the field.
So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge. and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Hold on. Isn't that interesting how the Bible includes this little line?
Now Joseph was handsome. in form and appearance. What does that have to do with Joseph being sold into slavery? in Egypt by his brothers, and going to Potiphar's house and prospering there. Isn't it amazing how the Bible includes a little line like that?
That it's a preview of, like, well, why would the Bible say that?
Well, we're going to find out why it says it next. Go ahead, Daniel. It came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph. And she said, Lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house.
And he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her To lie beside her or be with her.
Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work. and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went elsewhere. Thank you, Daniel.
When we face Sexual temptation. As Joseph did. As we face any temptation in life, we face again a decision, a choice. You're not impotent to be able to make a choice. When that decision that temptation comes in front of you.
Did anyone notice? What Joseph's first response, I actually highlighted it, probably noticed it. What was his response in verse 9? When he was tempted By Potiphar's wife to lie with me. That's a euphemism for saying, sleep with me, have sex with me.
He said, how then Could I do this great wickedness or this great evil? and sin against God. I want to be very clear in this. He did not refuse sinful pleasure because that's what sexual temptation is. No one's telling you it's not pleasurable.
He didn't refuse it because he was afraid he'd lose his job. He wasn't afraid that he'd get Potiphar's wife pregnant. He wasn't worried he'd get a sexually transmitted disease. He had one primary motivation, one reason. And the reason was this How could I do this great evil and sin against God?
His desire to please God was greater than his desire to please himself. That's really the decision we face at every temptation. We have a choice. Is my desire to please God greater than my desire over here to please myself? You make a choice.
And Joseph In that moment of temptation, my mission is to please God even more than I want to please myself. That's really what it comes down to. But As it says here. He didn't just reason his way out of this. He didn't just face this temptation and say, Well, how can I do this great evil and sin against God?
He actually took a next step, he took action.
So it wasn't just ruminating in the mind. Good reason, Joseph. he actually took action and he fled. Left his garment in her hand. and fled and went outside.
I think it's very notable in Scripture. that the only sin or only temptation. In scripture, that tells us to actually flee, like get out of there, is this particular one: sexual temptation. I think the reason it is because the temptation is so strong that the only way to safety is to actually remove yourself from the temptation. Notice this in Scripture.
This is the only one that says to flee.
Now let's get Carl up here. And Carl, we're going to read the contrast. Joseph and how Joseph overcame. He had the right motivation. How could I do this great evil and sin against God?
And he fled.
Now we're going to go to another man in Scripture, King David, and we're going to hear about his interaction. With a woman named Bathsheba, and see you can learn from negative examples too. This is in 2 Samuel chapter 11. Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Job and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged but David stayed at Jerusalem. Let's pause for a second.
Now remember. This is the same David. that had slain Goliath. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he defies? The armies of the living God.
David is described after a man after God's own heart. But again, just like in the story of Joseph, There's some lead up. to the sin it includes, right? Joseph prospering in the house. And the lead up here is that David is not where he should be.
He should be leading his army at the time when kings go out to battle. This is where David should be. David stayed at Jerusalem. Continue on.
Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.
So David sent and inquired about the woman. and one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? David sent messengers and took her, and she And when she came to him, he lay with her. and when she had purified herself from her uncleanliness, she returned to the house. The woman conceived, and she sent and told David, and said, I am pregnant.
Thank you, Carl. The rest of the story, we won't take the time to get into right now, is a very tragic story. David tries to cover his sexual sin with Bathsheba. by bringing, now listen to this. For those of you who don't know the story, by bringing Bathsheba's husband Home, his name was Uriah, by bringing A hymn home from the battlefront, that's where he should be, right, in the battlefront, brings Uriah home.
in order to give him furlough for a couple days.
Now what does David think Uriah is going to do when he comes home back to Jerusalem? and comes back home to his wife. We know what he thinks is going to happen. He thinks, like any husband who returns home from the front lines, he's going to get together with his wife. And he's hoping that Uriah gets together with his wife so that.
When Bathsheba has this baby that David fathered, It's not going to look like David fathered it because Uriah came home from the battlefront for that furlough and spent time. with his wife. But the problem is Uriah is far too principled to go into his own home with his wife while his comrades. are off at war.
So David sees this and he's just shocked.
So that doesn't stop David.
Now David tries to invite him to a party and get him drunk so that he'll go home and sleep with his wife. That doesn't work. And so now that nothing's working to get Uriah to go into his own wife, Bathsheba. David in one of the most wicked acts in Scripture. Sends Uriah the husband Back to the battle line.
carrying sealed orders. To be given to the commander to put Uriah in the front lines where David knows he will die in battle. David basically murders Uriah.
So he can marry Bathsheba, thinking that no one will then conclude that David committed adultery. This is what's called a sordid tale, S-O-R-D-I-D. Just a very, very wicked and evil situation. You know, David was looking around, trying to think of all these ways to get out of his sin. But he wasn't looking up.
He should have been repenting. God knew about this. David nearly lost his entire kingdom. Over this sin. He lost a child, for sure.
But thankfully, about a year later, we won't read that part of the story too, he eventually repented of this sin. And God forgave him. And restored him. And you can read about that in Psalm chapter 51. If you want to write that down to read as a follow-up.
And so back to Jesus, what he says in chapter 5 of Matthew, the passage read earlier. The sin of adultery for David. was not just the act of adultery with Bathsheba. The sin started when David was on his roof. and in the lust of his heart he saw this woman bathing, instead of diverting his eyes and walking away.
He lusted for her in his heart. And that's why what Jesus said, those who have looked at a woman with lust have already committed adultery in their hearts, because the lust in his heart led to the act of adultery as well. Again, that was from session six at the Overcomer Course for Young Adults in 2024. on embracing God's design for gender, sex, singleness, and marriage. There was much more to the session than what you heard, including a seven-point plan for overcoming sexual temptation and the small group discussions that follow each session.
We encourage you to tell the young adults in your life about the Overcomer Course by visiting our website, thechristianworldview.org. It takes place in June. But the portion of this session we heard makes the point that overcoming temptation. requires an immediate choice. regarding who I will love.
Will I love and please God like Joseph did? Or Will I love and please myself as King David did? We need to be asking the Lord each day that He would help us grow in our love for Him. We are out of time, but the good news is Emil Zewane will join us next week for part two. And reminder that you can order Emile's book, Fight Like a Man, for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview.
Just get in touch with us. All our contact information will be given in just a moment. As we close this final program of 2025, I just want to thank you for your encouragement, prayer, and support of the Christian Worldview. We are a listener supported nonprofit radio ministry, and we praise God for giving us the stewardship and the endurance to broadcast for another year. Thanks also to all our radio station affiliates who air this program each week.
And to our dedicated board and staff, including Brody, Kelly, Rich, Rosie, Alicia, Ben, Soren, and Monica. We are most grateful for each one of you. As we enter the new year, let's be reminded that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. and forever. Until next time.
Think biblically. Live accordingly and stand firm. The mission of the Christian worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 188-646-2233.
The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported, non-profit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. to make a donation, order resources, become a Christian Worldview partner, sign up for our weekly email or the Christian Worldview Journal monthly print publication, or to contact us, go to thechristianworldview.org, call 188-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian Worldview. Uh Mm.
