Faith Is the Victory, Part Ten Christ Versus Lusts

I. What Is Epithumia?

We have been speaking on faith and certain heart attitudes that are harmful to the life of faith. This morning I will speak on the attitude, epithumia, which means desire.

The Greek word epithumia can be used for good desire as well as evil. Most of its use in the New Testament refers to desire that is contrary to the will of God.

The urges of our bodies are not evil in themselves. But when these urges are satisfied contrary to the will of God, they become sinful. Sex outside of marriage is sinful. Eating food by stealing is evil. Eating too much food is sinful. Drunkenness is sinful. Working always to make more money is sinful because such a person is a lover of money.

The tenth commandment prohibits lust. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” So epithumia is evil desire of our bodies opposed to the will of God.

In the wilderness God provided Israel with manna daily for their physical needs. Yes, he did not give them variety, but he did give them food. Yet they murmured against God due to their evil lust. So we read in Numbers 11 that they lusted, craved for other food. They spoke against the Lord: “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost-also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (verses 4-6).

Psalm 106:14-15 gives a commentary on this situation: “In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.”

And we read in Exodus 16: “If only we had died . . . in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (verse 3). Let me tell you, lust confuses reality. Remember, later on, the ten spies said, “We saw them as giants, but we saw ourselves as grasshoppers.” This is the grasshopper syndrome (Numbers 13:33): Melons are praised, manna despised; a life of slavery in Egypt is praised while life with God in the wilderness is despised. Ephesians 4:22 speaks about desires that deceive. And in Numbers 11:34 we read that God gave the people meat for one whole month. And while they were eating, God became angry and killed them.

In 1 John 2:15-17 we read, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its lusts pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” And in 1 John 5:19 he tells us, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

Jesus said in John 8:44, “You belong to your father the devil, and you decide to carry out your father’s desires” (author’s translation). But Jesus carried out the desires of his heavenly Father, and as God’s children, we also carry out the desire of our Father in heaven.

But the wicked of the world continuously carry out the desires of their father the devil. They have no freedom to say “No.”

We find the theology of this in Romans 6:12-14: “Therefore do not let sin reign on your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”

Here we are told what to do as God’s people who died with Christ, were buried with Christ, were raised with Christ to live a new life. We are given certain imperatives:

1. “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey its epithumia, lusts.”
2. “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness.”
3. “Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.”
4. “Offer the parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness.”

What, then, do we learn from this passage?

1. Sin is not dead in Christians. Whether we are new Christians or old, sin is not dead in us. And we wrestle with this sin all our lives.
2. Sin exercises its power in and through our mortal bodies.
3. Sin may reign or dominate our mortal bodies.
4. Sin does not need to dominate our lives.
5. We are free and capable of offering our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness-a freedom that an unbeliever does not have.

We can give you many scriptures to prove that the pagan can only sin, and he sins always. He has no freedom to do anything differently. The classic passage is Ephesians 2, beginning with verse 1: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” Titus 3:3 also speaks about this: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.”

Believers in Christ have freedom to say “No” to sin and to fulfill the desires of God. In 1 Peter 4 we read, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” Christ died and we died with him. Christ died to sin; we died to sin. Sin is not dead, but we died to sin. We are finished with it in Christ. “As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human [lusts]. . . .” That is Christian life.

“As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.” So, notice, epithumia is opposed to the will of God. A true Christian has freedom because he is a new creation. He has been regenerated. He has been raised from the dead. He has new life, new desires, new understanding, new direction-everything new!

The Holy Spirit dwells in each believer, teaching him, empowering him, ruling him, as God dwelt in the temple. And the temple was always holy. “Don’t you know,” we are told in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own; you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your body.” The body is for the service of the Lord, and the Lord is for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13).

We are new creations! The Holy Spirit dwells in us. And God graciously gave us the Holy Scriptures so we know the will of God. God has given us the Holy Scripture, and he has also given us a holy church to help us, to edify us, to rebuke us, to correct us, to counsel us, to strengthen us, and so on.

So we are people who are made able to present the members of our bodies for the service of God. We put parts of our bodies at the disposal of Christ Jesus. And what is the first part that we present to God? I say it is the mind. You see, what we do comes out of what we think. “As you think in your heart, so are you.” So look at Romans 12: “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The first thing is a renewed mind. And we don’t renew our minds by watching television.

What about our tongues? They are not for gossip and slander, but for praise and proclamation of the gospel. What about our hands? “He who stole, let him steal no longer, but let him work with his hands, that he may have something to give.” What about our feet? Read Romans 10:14-15: go and proclaim the gospel. The preacher is sent, and I came. “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news.” Every part of our bodies should be put at the disposal of Christ’s service. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

II. Examples of People Corrupted by Epithumia

Second, let us look at examples of people corrupted by epithumia, addicted toepithumia, who became slaves of epithumia.

1. Eve (Genesis 3)

God told Eve and Adam how to live-live through obedience. That is the way to live the good life. But in Genesis the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” He is the author of all lies. “For God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened. Now your eyes are closed, you see. You don’t see things. You must sin and all of a sudden your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, meaning independent. You don’t need to anymore hear and do. You can determine your own life. You can go where you want to go. You can have freedom. And you will know good and evil.”

“[T]he woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom.” God provided other trees for food. But Eve lusted for the forbidden fruit. So she lusted, took, ate, and died.

2. Lot (Genesis 10-13)

Look at Lot. We know what Lot and his wife loved-cattle! They lived for money, for culture, for city life. Lot was given freedom to choose where he would go. We are told he looked and he saw the well-watered Jordan Valley. He coveted, he chose the Jordan Valley, which appeared to him like paradise. I don’t think the Jordan Valley is paradise. We read about paradise in Revelation 21 and 22. Paradise is where God is dwelling with his people. And Revelation does not say a thing about cattle! Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. He arrived in Sodom. He lived in Sodom. Let me tell you, lust-epithumia-leads us to Sodom and destruction.

3. Esau (Genesis 25:29-33)

Esau went out to hunt and came back tired and hungry. He said, “I am about to die!” That was a lie. He was exaggerating, you see. Lust-people exaggerate. “Give me some of that red stuff!” And his brother says, “No problem.”

When there are two sons, the younger son gets nothing. The property is divided into two parts, and the older son gets both parts. Jacob knew that he was not going to get anything, so he must make a deal. So he said, “Fine, no problem. Sell me your birthright.” And he sold his birthright, which included not only properties but also the covenant blessings.

Esau did not care for covenant. He did not care for promise. He did not care for heaven. He did not care for spiritual things. He was a person of lust. He would say, “The pleasures of sin for a season-give it to me now! What is the use of this promise, this Bible, this Christ, this salvation?” He sold it very cheaply.

Esau was a creature of lust. He despised spiritual blessings. Like Cain, he would not believe God. He sold all his inheritance for a cup of soup. How many teenagers have done that? Go ahead; lose your virginity and be very proud of it, or have seven abortions and be proud of it.

Yet we read about Moses despising the treasures of Egypt because he treasured God’s promised salvation (Hebrews 11:26).

4. Achan (Joshua 7)

Remember Achan? He was an Israelite. He crossed the Jordan and experienced divine miracles. He came to the Promised Land. He was a covenant man, yet he rejected God’s word. He would rather trust in this world than in the world to come. He would rather trust in gold and silver and a fashionable Babylonish garment to give him life and security. Read Joshua 7:21 and following. Achan saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid two hundred shekels of silver, fifty shekels of gold, and an imported Babylonish garment. He refused to confess his sins. His family was complicit in this, and you know what happened: they killed them and burned them. That is what happens to people of lust.

5. Samson (Judges 13-16)

Samson is a classic case of a lustful man. A miracle child, he was a Nazirite from birth. He was told not to eat grape products, not to cut his hair, not to touch a dead body. Yet Samson was a man of epithumia, of evil lust. He was a man of indulgent desires. He had no self-control. He violated God’s law that prohibited marrying foreign women. He violated his Nazirite vows and drank wine (Judges 14:10). The Bible prohibits going to prostitutes; he went to prostitutes. The Bible prohibits contact with dead bodies, especially for one who was a Nazirite; he violated it when he touched the dead body of the lion. He was told not to cut his hair; he violated that. And we are told the Holy Spirit left him. (PGM) His eyes were gouged out and he was shackled, stripped naked, and he became a slave for the Philistines.

In Judges 16 we see Samson sleeping in the lap of Delilah while she is planning to destroy him. He became powerless and God-abandoned. If you are a Christian and you are giving yourself to lusts, picture yourself sleeping in the lap of Delilah. Soon your eyes will be gouged out, you will be shackled, God will abandon you, and you will become a slave to lust.

This is a picture of many churches today. They are sleeping in the lap of the world-powerless, God-forsaken, and undiscerning.

6. David (2 Samuel 11-12)

David saw Bathsheba and coveted her. People told him, “She is the wife of Uriah.” He said, “No matter.” He had the Bible. But he said, “Forget about it. I am the king. I can do whatever I want. He took and he committed adultery. He covered it up and killed Uriah. He despised God and his word through lust, and God punished him. The sword shall not depart from the house. Public humiliation. Death of his sons. His son Amnon through lust raped his sister Tamar, for which Absalom killed Amnon. What a miserable, wretched end, when we give ourselves to be mastered by epithumia.

7. Solomon (1 Kings 11)

Maybe Solomon is different. He had a copy of the Bible also. But he rejected its terms. He was a man of lust, not a man of God. It is sad to hear what is written in the Scriptures about him to whom God gave great wisdom. “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter-Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love” (verses 1-2). I would say “in lust.” And read verse 3: “And his wives led him astray.” Verse 9: “The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.”

III. Positive Examples of Spirit-Led Lives

1. Joseph (Genesis 39:7-12)

Joseph was in Egypt as a teenager, away from his parents, away from worship and sacrifice. Potiphar’s wife told him, “Come to bed with me” (verse 7). He refused, saying, “How . . . could I do such a great wicked thing and sin against God?” (verses 8-9). He lived in the presence of God. He valued God’s presence more than anything else in the world. He was saying, “If I sleep with you, God will abandon me, and I would rather live in the presence of God than doing anything else in the world. What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?” Verse 12: [Potiphar’s wife] caught him by his cloak and said, ‘Come to bed with me!’ But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of this house [of danger],” only to be thrown into a prison. But God was with him. When you love God, God is with you, and he will bless you. That is all that matters. It is better to be in prison with God than in a palace in the lap of Potiphar’s wife.

2. Daniel (Daniel 1)

The king of Babylon assigned the Hebrew boys non-kosher food and wine (verse 8). This was against the law of God, and Daniel delighted in the law of God. Daniel and his friends would obey God and honor him in Babylon. So we read, “Daniel resolved . . . .” Oh, what a resolution! He would not change his mind, no matter what. “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” And God helped him in his resolution to honor God and not to violate his law, even in Babylon.

3. Jesus

Jesus was tempted by the devil to dishonor his Father by making bread out of stones to satisfy his hunger after a forty-day fast. He would not do so. Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Father did not ask him to make bread out of stone. “I live by my Father’s word. He didn’t tell me.” Eve listened to Satan against God’s revelation; but here the Son says, “No, he didn’t tell me, and I live by his word.” He would rather obey his Father than the devil.

Later, the devil spoke to Jesus through Peter not to go Jerusalem to be killed. Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not delight in the things of God, but the things of men” (author’s translation).

What does the Bible say about epithumia, lust? The source of it is the devil (John 8:44). We are told about the lust of our hearts, so lust is here with us in our mortal bodies (Romans 1:24). The Bible speaks about lust of the flesh. It speaks about hurtful lust. Lust hurts us, destroys us, defeats us, brings us down (1 Timothy 6:9). And in James 1 we read, “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire” – that is in the flesh, in the mortal body – “he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived” – that is, when you fulfill the desire – “it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (verses 13-15). Notice, it drags you. You have no power. The lust is dominant. The lust leads you, and you go like a slave, as you lived previously, before you came to know the Lord. You are dragged and enticed by lust, and killed.

We are told in many places that this is the nature of the life of an unbeliever (Ephesians 2:3; 1 Peter 1:14; 1 Peter 4:1-3; Titus 3:3). Then 2 Peter 2:10 tells us that he who lives by lust also despises God’s authority. He despises God, he despises the Scripture, he despises his father and mother, he despises the pastors. He will despise every authority placed upon him so that he may live a life of lust. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter 2:18 that the false teachers target new believers. The attraction is what? “In my church, we let you sin. In the other church, they won’t let you sin. But come to my church; we let you sin. We don’t interfere.”

Read 2 Peter 2:18-19. These lust teachers bait and switch. “They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

IV. The Biblical Solution for Lust

What is the biblical solution for lust?

1. Realize your freedom in Christ. And if you are not a Christian, then cry out to God. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That is the first thing. And as a Christian, you have the freedom not to sin. Romans 6:12-14 tells us that. You didn’t have this freedom before; now you have freedom to obey God, to love God, to think God’s thoughts, to say “No” to sin.
2. Live by the Holy Spirit-not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 8:4; and Galatians 5:25. Let me read 2 Corinthians 5:14 to you. Just listen to this language: “For Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for him and was raised again.”
3. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Christian life is Pentecostal life: “Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-20).
4. Be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14). Step by step, be led by the Spirit. Either you are going to be led by lust or led by the Holy Spirit. So we are told: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.”
5. Kill lusts by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by your own resolution. Joshua killed the Canaanites; we are to kill sin. We are to be terrorists in that sense. We terrorize and we kill sin in our mortal bodies. Colossians 3:5 and Romans 8:13-go home and read them. Put to death lusts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
6. When you live a Spirit-filled life, the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in your life, as found in Galatians 5:22-23, including self-control.
7. Look at Galatians 5:16. Memorize this, believe it, and do what it says. This will give you victory over sin every day of your life. “So I say, live by the Spirit,” or more literally, “walk by the Spirit,” which is a present imperative meaning “keep on daily walking by the Spirit.” “Walk” means making progress in the way of God-steady progress, regular progress, step-by-step progress. That is the condition. What is the guarantee? You will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And the Greek says, “The lust of the flesh you will never, never fulfill.”

Praise God, we are new creations. We enjoy freedom. The Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. We are not our own; we are redeemed by a precious price, the blood of Christ. Glorify God in your body. The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body.

Remember Demas? He abandoned the gospel, having loved this present world. He became a man of lust. Let me tell you, the world and its lusts pass away. It is all temporary. It is doomed to destruction. Don’t buy real estate in Sodom because it is not a good investment. But those who do the will of God will live forever.

Finally, lust will never satisfy you. You think it will. You become an addict. But lust will never satisfy you. Jesus said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). In John 6:35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” In John 7:37-38 he said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. . . and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (author’s translation). Lust destroys. Jesus Christ satisfies.