Overcoming Sins of Sexual Addiction

So, the reason I am having this meeting only for men is because there are certain things that we face as men, certain temptations, that women don't face so much. In fact, particularly in the area of sex and thinking of that area alone, temptation is very strong for men. I don't know the degree of intensity, but it's probably a hundred times more than a woman faces in the sexual area.

And we have to first of all recognize that it was God who made it like that. It's not some accident of nature. So, if you start from the beginning recognizing God made my body the way it is made.

And he is the one who put desire for food or sleep and sex. And also recognize that food and sleep are essential. You cannot live without food and sleep.

But you must recognize sex is not in the same category. It's not essential. You can live without it.

Jesus lived without it. Paul lived without it. Many godly men who were single lived without it and conquered it.

So, it's not in the same category as other desires. But yet, God has made it very strong in man, I think primarily for the propagation of the human race. And he has not made it so strong in women.

Because if it were so strong in women, every woman would end up as a prostitute. And that would be terrible. So, God in his great wisdom made it like that.

That is the first thing that you need to recognize. And then also, its fulfillment can really be only when you get married. But the desire for sexual relations, I mean, the age keeps going down and down and down because of the media and other matters.

But I think by the time a person is 13 or 15, they are really getting interested in the opposite sex and the sexual desire in a body becomes strong. Now, it is also a fact that all men don't have the same strength of sexual desire. So, if you have a greater sexual desire, it doesn't mean you are a greater sinner, it just means you are a stronger man.

That's all. Which is not a crime. So, there are men, I think, with a very weak sexual desire.

But I don't know the medical reason for it, but I think they are probably effeminate, which means they are a little more like women. And you don't want to be that. I ask people and I have heard people tell me that young men, that they are hardly ever tempted with women.

Great. I don't tell them that, but I think this guy must be partly woman inside. That's why he is not so tempted with women.

And I have seen in such people, when I watch their personality, they are very effeminate in their speech and behavior. I don't know why some men are like that, but that's not the way any man wants to be. So, if you pray that your sexual desire will be God will take it away or decrease, you are actually praying Lord make me a woman.

So, it's not a good thing to pray. God in his great wisdom has made that a strong desire and we need to recognize God in all this. And then the second question is why God has allowed it to begin when we are so young.

I mean, even if it starts at 15, a strong desire, I mean some of them don't get married till they are 30 or 25 or it's 10-15 years of struggle, why didn't, see for example, 5 year olds don't have this struggle, but think of if God allowed it to come at a certain age, why didn't he allow it to come at a later age, so that we wouldn't be struggling so much, say closer to the age when we are going to get married. And there again we have to accept the wisdom of God. In all these things, if you begin with the sovereignty and the wisdom of God, you will see it in a clear picture.

God allowed this desire to start at a young age, so that you can fight it and conquer it even before you get married. See, if the only way to conquer sexual urge is by getting married, it's good, but it's not the best. The best is if you can conquer it as a young man, and you are a strong young man with the desire so passionate in you, and you love Jesus, and you seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and passionately walk the way of the cross that Jesus went, and you overcome it.

That's tremendous, because I think you will have a very happy marriage if you have done it like that in your younger days. Now, those who have indulged and ruined themselves a lot through sexual indulgence, I'm not saying you won't have a happy marriage, but every man has to reap what they have sown. That's a law that cannot be changed.

Forgiveness is for everybody, no matter how great your sin is, it can be forgiven. But the fact remains that, for example, if you watch a lot of pornography from the time you are very young, 15 till you get married, 15 years of watching pornography, you are going to be plagued with dirty dreams for the next 30 years. You might as well face it.

Unless you are radical, and God can help you overcome. I'm not talking about thoughts, I'm talking about dreams. Thoughts we can overcome.

How quickly you overcome sinful thoughts depends on how radical you are in desiring victory over sin. But dreams are unconscious sin, and that is because of what we have stored in our memory, and our unconscious knows, that we love those things, and that's why we stored it, watched it, watched it, watched it. For example, if you have watched a dirty movie, not a fully dirty movie, maybe some of these, most of these movies will have about 15 seconds of something impure.

You may find after many years, that the whole two hour story of the film you forget, but the 15 seconds remains in your mind. What's the reason for that? It's because sex is a very strong desire within us. See, love of money is not as strongly within us, sex is part of our bodily desire.

So it's a very strong desire. So that's why you got to be very careful, that you don't store more bad images into your mind, by books you read, or movies you watch. I mean, if you know a movie has got some dirty scenes in it, it's best to avoid it completely.

Some people say, well, I know where it is, and I'll fast forward it or something. It's risky. The best is to avoid it.

You are not going to lose something by not watching something. There are clean movies you can watch, but you got to be very, very careful. And now, you know, in the olden days, they used to say, it's R-rated, is it R-rated? Well, I find things which are not R-rated, are also pretty dirty, from what I've told.

So, we can't go just by the rating, because in the world, the standard of rating is very different from a Christian's. The second thing you need to see is, that Jesus Christ came as a man just like us. Hebrews in chapter 2 says, he had to be made like his brothers in all things, verse 17, Hebrews 2, 17.

Jesus was made like his brothers in all things, so that he can become a merciful and faithful high priest. And since he was tempted, verse 18, in what he suffered, he is able to run to the aid of those who are tempted. Think of that picture, that when you are tempted, the area where he was tempted, he runs to your aid.

Now, we are tempted in many ways, and Jesus was tempted in all those ways. And if we imagine that Jesus was not tempted in the sexual area, then we have to say, Lord, our biggest area of temptation, you were not tempted in, so you don't know what we struggle with. It's not true.

Hebrews 4, 15 is very clear, he was tempted in all things as we are, but did not sin. Definitely he was tempted in the areas where you and I are tempted, the strongest, which is the sexual area, and he did not sin. Now, think of this in your mind, Jesus not using his power as God.

Now, the reason why I mention this is because in 1 Timothy 3, 16, it says, that the secret of living a godly life is in seeing that Jesus came in the flesh. In the flesh means he had a will of his own, there was no sin in him, he was not sinful flesh, but he came with a self-will, which he could choose to say yes or no to temptation, or yes or no to God. He had a free will.

He says that in John 6, 38, I came from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of whom who sent me. And if you want to know what a struggle he had sometimes with some temptations, you see in the Gethsemane for example, struggle, struggle, struggle and he overcame. Or as it says in Hebrews 5 and verse 7, in the days of his flesh he prayed with loud supplication, loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from sinning, from spiritual death, and he was heard.

So, there were some temptations where Jesus, the only way he could overcome was he had to fight, resist it and pray and sometimes go out into the wilderness and cry out to God in the middle of the night, early morning, with loud crying and tears saying, Father I don't want to sin, I don't want spiritual death to touch me, I don't even want the smell of it. See the thing is, there are very few Christians, I'll tell you, who pray like that to be free from sin. They keep saying lame excuses, oh brother I've tried, I've tried, I've prayed twice for victory over sin, I never got it.

I tell you in a hundred years you won't get it, if that's the way you pray. You start praying like Jesus prayed, desperate. I think more people pray more desperately if some loved one is seriously sick with cancer and the doctor has given up all hope, they pray ten times more desperately than they pray for victory over masturbation or sexually dirty thoughts or over sexual temptation.

They're not desperate. So, if God sees, you know, the Bible says that Jeremiah 29, 13, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. When you search for God with all your heart, the more wholeheartedly someone searches for God with all his heart, the more likely he's going to find him.

So if you find there are some brothers who are getting victory and you are not, just don't say why is it. I'll tell you the answer, he's seeking God more wholeheartedly than you are. You're casual about your victory, he's radical.

He's crying out day and night and you go to sleep peacefully at night, wonder why you don't get victory. He runs away from temptation and you don't. So naturally he'll get victory which you don't get.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That never changes. He's not the same to all people.

All are his children but he rewards those who diligently seek him. Even for Jesus, the law was the same. He prayed with loud crying and tears, Hebrews 5, 7, to him who was able to save him from death.

He didn't feel with my grit, my determination, I can overcome this sexual temptation. No. He felt, Father, you got to save me from sinning.

The same helpless dependence on the Father. We have the helpless dependence on the Holy Spirit. Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit to help him.

Because if he had resources within him to overcome without the Holy Spirit, then he's not an example for us. In the Old Testament law, there was no Holy Spirit that people had in the Old Testament. So they could not, I'm sure they could not overcome sexual sin.

Dirty thoughts or masturbation or anything, all those people. But when the Holy Spirit came, things were different. They didn't have Jesus.

1 Timothy 3.16 says, this is the secret of godliness. The answer lies in Christ. How the way to live a godly life.

Living Bible puts it like this. It is true that the way to live a godly life is not an easy matter. 1 Timothy 3.16. But the answer lies in Christ who came to earth like us.

So, where is the answer to that? I mean, not in his dying on the cross, but in his living 33 years, tempted as we are, without sinning. So, we have to make Jesus our example. And that is the reason why this whole doctrine of Christ having come in the flesh and being tempted like us has been fought tooth and nail by the devil through his agents.

You know, for 40 years people have called me a hypocrite. I mean, not a hypocrite, but a heretic, false teacher for teaching this. I'm not surprised.

The devil is absolutely mad that anyone would teach others how to get victory over sin. He doesn't want it. He wants people to live defeated, defeated, defeated and probably they continue like that, they backslide and drop into the devil's lap.

That's exactly what he wants. So, to me, one of the clearest proofs that Christ coming in the flesh is the secret of godliness is the amount of opposition we have faced through the years in preaching it that Jesus was tempted exactly like us. And not just preaching it, there are people who are preaching it, but living it.

Living demonstrating, not just in the sexual area, but living demonstrating that we have found the secret of living a life where we can not only overcome in the sexual area, but learn how to forgive others, learn how to live without murmuring and grumbling, learn how to rejoice always and be anxious for nothing, and to love people who hate us and to forgive those who hurt us. This is Christ manifesting in the flesh. Sex is just one area.

The other thing I want to say is, we cannot take sex by itself. Sin is like a big circle. One large segment of it is sex, I agree, but there are other segments, murmuring, complaining, grumbling, jealousy, anxiety, fear, love of money.

It's all one big circle of sin with different different segments. So, if I say, Lord just give me victory over this segment, it doesn't work like that. Sin shall not rule over you, Romans 6.14 means the whole thing.

So, I must seek for total victory over sin, not just sexual temptation, even though that may be the thing plaguing you. Treat the other sins in your life also as serious because they dishonor God. If you murmur and complain, it dishonors God.

If you get angry, it dishonors God. So, seek for total victory. That's very very important.

And then, further I want to say is, what is our definition of sin? There are people, believe it or not, Christians who say, well, masturbation is not a sin. And they say, well, it's not as bad as committing adultery and if by that way a man can relieve himself from the temptation to commit adultery, it's good. In fact, there was one pastor who said masturbation was a gift of God.

Wonderful. Can you believe that people teach such things? Now, personally I'll tell you why I don't believe that. Why I think that's a lot of rubbish.

Because our definition of sin determines whether these things are sin or not. Are dirty thoughts sin? Is masturbation a sin? Well, let me give you three definitions of sin, found in the Bible. One is 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4, which is transgression of the law.

That means doing something which God has forbidden. God says, don't do it, you do it. That is sin.

And the other is James 4, 17, where you know the right thing to do and you did not do it. That means God said something we have to do, encourage one another and you didn't do it. So there are two types of sin.

One is what God told you not to do and you did it. And the other what God told you to do and you didn't do it. Because there are two types of commands.

Honor your father and mother, something to do. If you don't do it, it's a sin. The other is don't commit adultery, something not to do.

If you do it, it's a sin. Or like when you tell a child to color inside a circle, if he colors outside the circle, it's wrong. If he doesn't fully color inside the circle, it's also wrong.

So there are sins of commission and sins of omission. Generally speaking, we acknowledge sins of commission, but sins of omission we don't usually take seriously. Because we haven't read the scriptures, we think that it's not so important to encourage one another.

A lot of married people never encourage their wives. They don't even think it's a sin. If they slap their wives, they know it's a sin.

But they don't think that I don't encourage my wife is a sin. They don't even think of that. That's our human nature.

Part of the reason is, see we start with our conscience, which is a good thing. But our conscience is not the perfect guide for what is God's plan for our life. Your conscience must be sensitized through reading God's word, the scriptures.

Then your conscience begins to understand what God's will is. Then you will know what sin is. But here's the third, which is the most important one.

For years and years I tried to find, Lord, what is your definition of sin? I want to find that. These are two, you know, it's like you go from first standard to second standard, third grade, fourth grade, like that. So here is what I see today as the clearest, strongest definition of sin that I've discovered in scripture.

Romans 3 and verse 23. So I told you sins of commission and sins of omission. But beyond all that, it says in Romans 3, 23, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So sin is, according to this definition, coming below the standard of the glory of God. Anything that comes below the standard of the glory of God is sin. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So I see that as a definition of sin. I've never heard anyone speak on this, but it has become very clear to me as I've studied scripture. Now then the question comes, what is the glory of God? It's a very vague term, which a lot of people, if you ask somebody what is the glory of God, they think of some bright light or something in the heavens.

No, it's not like that. Because how does that define sin for me? Now I compare scripture with scripture. I go to John chapter 1 and verse 14 where I read that word became flesh.

It's talking about Jesus Christ coming in the flesh. And He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten from the Father.

We saw the glory of God in Jesus and it wasn't just a bright light. It was a life. A life full of grace and truth.

So the glory of God was seen in the life of Jesus on earth. So the earthly life of Jesus demonstrates the glory of God. So whenever you read about the glory of God in this context, you can see this is the glory of God.

I turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6. For God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts, given us the light of the knowledge of glory of God in the face of Christ or in the life of Christ. That is where the glory of God is seen. So you connect this with Romans 3.23. All have sinned and come short of the life of Christ.

That's the answer. So that is my definition of sin now. Come short of the glory of God means come short of the life of Christ.

So here is my definition of sin. Anything unchrist-like, as I see from scripture, the life of Jesus is sin. And that is why I say as long as you live on earth and you have not become 100% like Christ which will happen only when He returns again, you have to say there is unconscious sin in you.

The conscious you can see, but even if you see all your conscious sin, there is still 10 times more than that unconscious within you unlike Christ. And that is why there is no reason for us to be proud, to think that just because we have conquered 10% of sin in our life, we are better than all the other people in the world. There is 90% still of muck of sin inside you which means unchrist-likeness which sometimes surfaces in the moment of temptation or frustration or something comes out.

Where did it come out from? Something from within, unchrist-like. So anything unchrist-like is sinful. Immediately I get the answer to this question of is masturbation a sin? Very easy to find out.

Do you think Jesus ever did it? Impossible in my mind. Completely out of the question. That shows me clearly that masturbation is a sin that comes short of the glory of God.

And don't let anyone else convince you with any argument. You can relieve a certain sexual pressure thereby. It's true.

It's like saying you can relieve a certain pressure by watching five minutes of pornography. What do you gain from that? You added more muck into your mind which will plague you for the rest of your life. But the fact that you get a relief from something doesn't mean that you have not sinned.

For example, I will give you another non-sexual area example. Supposing you are really worked up in anger against somebody, sometimes even a husband and wife, the pressure builds up so much in you, you just yell it out at that person and you feel a certain relief. Ah, I let that person have a piece of my mind.

You think that's a godly relief? Not at all. You got relief because you did your own will and satisfied your lust to get angry at that person. So when a person says, I get a relief through masturbation, what? By satisfying your lust and fulfilling your lust? There is a certain relief, sure.

The Bible says there is a pleasure in sin. The Bible doesn't deny there is no pleasure in sin. The Bible says very clearly in Hebrews 11 and verse 25, there is a pleasure in sin.

It's written in the word of God. But it's also written here, it is a passing pleasure. Whenever you sin in any area, how long does that pleasure last? For a while.

After that comes guilt, self-condemnation, discouragement and that's where the devil wanted to get you so that he could knock you down some more. So how foolish you are to get that type of relief because then the devil has won the victory and he just waits to condemn you and you feel out of touch with God and you condemn yourself and you feel discouraged. Your effectiveness for God is gone.

If we are to be effective for God and if our mouth, you know, the Lord says in Isaiah 49 concerning Jesus and this can be true of us also. I have often taken it for myself. It's a prophecy concerning Jesus, Isaiah 49.

Verse 2, He has made my mouth like a sharp sword, not the sword of a murderer, not the knife of a murderer, but the knife of a surgeon. The knife of a murderer brings death. The knife of a surgeon brings life.

And my mouth must be like a sharp knife that does not hesitate like the surgeon does not hesitate to cut the person open. In the olden days without anesthesia, I don't know whether you know, before anesthesia was discovered, they would just tie a man's hands and legs and all and operate on him no matter how much he screamed, they would cut him open. You got to be pretty ruthless surgeon to do something like that.

But he knew it was the knife of bringing life. So he's made your mouth like a sharp sword. And the aim of the devil is to blunt that sword by pornography and sexual sin and many other sins so that the sword doesn't cut anymore.

It doesn't go and accomplish what it should. God wants all of us to be witnesses even if you are not a preacher. Your effectiveness as a witness is going to be seriously compromised if you are blunted, if you don't take the standard of sin which the Bible calls sin, coming short of the glory of God.

So when you think a certain type of thought is okay or watching a certain type of movie is okay, ask yourself, can I do this in fellowship with Jesus Christ? We want to do everything in fellowship with Jesus Christ. If we walk in darkness and say we have fellowship with him, we are lying. The whole Christian life is one of fellowship with Christ and in fellowship with Christ we do what we are supposed to do.

So if any particular moment what I am doing, I cannot have fellowship with Christ there. I should not do it. See there is no verse in the Bible that you can't smoke cigarettes.

We know it harms the body, it destroys the lungs, you can get lung cancer. But people say well there is no sin in that. Well you are destroying the temple of the Holy Spirit.

People wouldn't think of taking a hammer and breaking down this building. This is not the real church, this is only a building. The real what you call church temple is this body.

So if you won't take a hammer and break this building, you can't destroy your lungs with cigarettes. You can't destroy your liver with alcohol, even though there is no verse for it. You won't destroy it with anything that harms your body.

So you got to ask yourself even in this watching movies and things like that, can I have Jesus sitting next to me and watch this. Jesus is not against entertainment. I don't believe if you are watching a cricket match or a baseball match, Jesus will say get up and close that down.

No, because it's not sinful. It's quite clean and a healthy thing to play such games. But when it comes to something which is sinful, would Jesus encourage you to watch it? Even if there is no sex in a movie about somebody having an affair with somebody else or encouraging divorce or something like that.

Is that good to watch such things? It would be very very radical. Now the reason why I say this is because I told you, sin is like a circle. If you say, Oh Lord, please give me a victory over masturbation, give me a victory over pornography and you are being careless in some of these areas, you won't get it.

Because he sees you are not serious about overcoming sin totally. You want one segment to somehow overcome because that's pretty bad. So treat sin as a whole.

That's the other thing I would like to say to you. So I am just sharing with you some few basic points and then I want you to turn to Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8, Paul was concerned about lust. Paul was also struggling with lust by the way.

Romans 8 he says, you know another place by the way, he says I kept the whole law in Philippians 3 and in Acts 23.1 he says, I lived with a good conscience until this day. So Paul was a law abiding citizen according to the commandments that Moses gave. There were 10 commandments.

But here he admits that he kept only 9 of them. From the other passages you think he kept all 10 but he didn't. He says in Romans 7, sorry Romans 7 verse 7, I would not have known about coveting or as the margin of my bible says lusting if the law had not said you shall not lust.

The 10th commandment was you shall not lust after your neighbor's wife or lust after your neighbor's daughter. Lust means a strong desire to have that for me, my pretty neighbor's wife. I wish she were my wife or I wish I could be with her.

You shall not lust. It was an inward thing. Now you could punish all the other 9 commandments because you see whether a man disobeyed it.

But there was no way of punishing a man for the 10th commandment because you don't know whether he disobeyed it or not. And why did God leave that 10th commandment knowing that nobody could obey it? He kept it there to see how many people will honestly admit that they cannot keep the 10th commandment. You remember when the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10 came to Jesus and said what must I do to have eternal life? Jesus said this is old covenant.

Today we say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, old covenant. He said keep the commandments. And he said which ones? And Jesus listed the commandments related to man and he went through commandments 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and stopped.

Have you noticed that in Mark 10? You must read the bible carefully. He never mentioned the 10th commandment. And because he stopped at 9, the young man said I have kept all of them.

Jesus knew if he had listed the 10th and he was honest, the fellow could say I couldn't keep it. He wanted to know whether he kept 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. But he was not willing to go to the 10th. Strong lust for something.

God knew that nobody could keep it. And God was seeing how many people will admit it and come seeking me. God I can't keep this 10th commandment, please help me.

And Paul was one like that. He said sin Romans 7, 8 taking opportunity through the commandment producing me lusting of every kind. Paul says I'll tell you honestly brothers, I lusted after some of my neighbor's wives.

They were pretty and I'm a man and I got tempted looking at them. I said wow. I lusted after some pretty women on the streets and I lusted when I saw pictures.

He's just being honest. This is the great apostle Paul. Produced lusting in me of every kind.

But he didn't stop there. He was seeking, seeking for victory and he said I want to do what is good. But I'm not able to do it.

I'm not able to do it. He says in verse 18, nothing good dwells in my flesh. The wishing is present but the doing of good is not.

Do you find that? I want to do it but I'm not able to do it. The good that I wish, verse 19, I don't do. The very evil which I don't want, I do.

And he says that's because verse 20, sin dwells in me. I find then verse 21, a principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. You find you're in agreement with Paul.

He's an absolutely honest person. And apply that to sexual temptation. I joyfully concur with the law of God.

I think most of you do. But I see another law in my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin which is in my members. And now what he says, oh wretched man that I am.

Who will set me free? There's a cry in his heart, I don't want to be in bondage like this. From this body of sin and death, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So he says, there's no condemnation because I'm in Christ, chapter 8 verse 1. The law of the spirit, this is the verse of deliverance.

You know his cry is, how will I be set free? And here's the answer. The law of the spirit, not the law of the ten commandments, I couldn't keep it. But another law, the law of the spirit which is not many more commandments.

The law of the spirit is life in Christ Jesus. That is different. This law is life.

This law, life in Christ Jesus has set me free from this other law of sin and death which is in my members. The only way you can be set free is not by yoga, not by gritting your teeth, not by determination, not by just fighting. You have to allow the life of Jesus Christ to surge up within you and deliver you.

That life comes through the Holy Spirit. And that is why I keep on urging that you must seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I don't mean this once for all Pentecostal teaching of once for all baptism in the Holy Spirit, but a continuous fullness of the Holy Spirit.

And I'm not referring now to speaking in tongues. I'm referring to overcoming sin, overcoming masturbation, overcoming dirty thoughts, overcoming anger, overcoming bitterness, overcoming unforgiving spirits and overcoming love of money. That's what I mean by the fullness of the Spirit which is quite different from just speaking in tongues.

I could speak in tongues and be defeated. But when the Spirit of God fills me every day, I cannot be defeated. Because the life of Christ Jesus comes up and lifts me up.

It's something like this. See, here's a, supposing this is my body with the law of sin, like the law of gravity pulling me down. Anywhere you take this little booklet, anywhere in the world, the law is the same.

It falls down. There's no way this booklet can fight the law of gravity. It's too strong.

And the law of sin in your body is too strong. You've got to face it. You cannot overcome it.

Any amount of determination this book has, it'll fall. You go to some other place and say it won't happen in a church, you'll fall there too. But, now it doesn't fall.

Because it's being held up by a life in me. The life in my body is holding this up. It's not that the law of gravity is not operating here.

The law of sin will continue to operate in you till you die. But another law of life in my body lifts you up against the law of sin. And as long as you remain there in humility, humility is the secret, to remain there, sin cannot rule over you.

Because you're upheld by the grace of God. That is the only way by the life of Jesus. This is called the law of the spirit.

It's the only way you can keep that 10th commandment, you shall not lust. The other commandments, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery. The external commandments you can keep even without the Holy Spirit.

There are many non-Christians who keep those commandments. But this one, nobody could keep, not even God-fearing Jews. Paul was one of the best.

He couldn't keep it. He was so honest enough to say, all types of lust came into my thoughts. But he says how he got the deliverance.

And he says now, this requirement of the law, Romans 8.4, what is the requirement of the law? You shall not lust, Romans 7.7. He says that requirement of the law is now fulfilled inside me. Because I don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So in other words, it's not just that, you know, the thing is this booklet doesn't have a will of its own, so it's not a very good illustration.

But if this booklet had a will of its own and saying, hey, I've had enough of your being in your hand. It's more like if you hold a child and say, listen, as long as I hold you, you won't fall. A child has got a free will.

And the child wiggles and says, no, I don't want to be here. That's how we are. If we were like this, like this book with no choice, we'd never fall into sin, but then we'd be like the planets, robots.

The planets never sin, but they can never be children of God also. You know, without free will, you will not sin, but you cannot be a child of God also. That's why God's given man a free will and conscience.

That's what distinguishes man from all the rest of creation. Animals have got free will. Plants don't have free will.

They just have to do what nature says. Animals have got free will, but they don't have a conscience. But man is above them all, free will and conscience, because that's the only way you can be a child of God.

That's the only way you can sin. So therefore, God wants us to make this choice, walking according to the spirit. So in other words, it's not just once I'm filled with the spirit, now I'll never sin.

No, I have to walk and walk is a choice, one step at a time, daily, in helpless dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Another beautiful picture of this is what Jesus gave us in John 15. John 15 and verse 5. I am the wine, you are the branches.

Or in India, people don't see wine so much. I am the mango tree and you are the branches. As it cannot bear fruit without being in the tree, apart from me you can do nothing.

So think of yourself as a helpless branch receiving the sap from the tree and producing the mangoes. Very good mangoes. You ask the branch, how do you do it? I don't do anything, I just remain in the tree.

And the Holy Spirit flows in and flows in. It's a beautiful picture, but again, it's a limited picture because the branch doesn't have a choice. We have a choice whether I want to remain in that place or cut myself off.

That's why we have to take sin in its totality. That if I slip up in some way and I don't set it right immediately, for example, you yelled at somebody and you didn't set it right. Fine.

You may think that has got no connection with your masturbation and pornography. It has. Because you ignored sin in one area.

You took it lightly. You took this whole thing lightly, then the whole thing collapses. So always take sin in its totality.

That helpless dependence, beautiful picture that the Lord gave us. So walking in the Spirit, this life of faith means this helpless dependence upon the Lord and also it means something else. In 2nd Timothy chapter 1, it says, God has not given us the spirit of fear.

What spirit has he given us? He's given us 2nd Timothy 1 verse 7, God has not given us a spirit of timidity. Timidity means, you know, it's another type of fear. It's not the fear of some animal biting at me, but a timid person who's hesitant to go forward into battle, a soldier who's timid to go into battle.

God has not given us a spirit of timidity. We're bold to go into battle. He's given us a spirit of power, a spirit of power, a spirit of love and spirit of discipline.

The Holy Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit teaches us to be disciplined in our life and that is a big area if you want to overcome sexual temptation in your body. And you'll find that very often sexual temptation gets far over you because you're not disciplined. So, if you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, it says there that, don't you know that those who want to win a prize, in verse 24, everybody runs in a race, but only one receives the prize.

Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in, say, the Olympic Games, exercises self-control in all things. They don't have the Holy Spirit, but they're so determined to come first in the marathon, 40 kilometer race, that they are very careful about what they eat.

They say, if I become overweight, it's still four more years for the Olympic Games. They trained for it four years earlier. But these four years, I've got to be very careful about what I eat.

I've got to keep my weight in control. They go visiting somebody's home and say, hey, can you have this? Say, no, thank you. I love the taste of it, but I'm disciplining my body because I've got the Olympic Games coming up, running the marathon.

Hey, that's another three years, man. I know it's three years, but I've got to train myself now. So, everyone exercises self-control.

He goes to sleep at a certain time and gets up and disciplines himself to run a marathon, perhaps every day of those years, to see, can I make it? Can I make it? Am I improving my timing? This is how they win. They don't just sit back lazily and expect to win the marathon. Now, remember, this is the Holy Spirit saying, they do it just to receive a gold medal, but we are going to get an imperishable, eternal crown of glory.

So, what do I do? If those fellows can discipline themselves without the Holy Spirit, just for an earthly crown, don't let me say, I can't do it. Without the Holy Spirit, if that fellow can accomplish discipline, with the help of the Holy Spirit, can you imagine how much more discipline I can do in my life, in my body? So, I don't run without an aim. I don't just box into the air.

I buffet my body and make it my slave. Paul had tremendous sexual passions. He was a fiery man.

I'm sure his sexual desire was very strong. And he says, I had to buffet, means hammer my body, not physically, but control those passions with me, because I've got a goal. And you say, how do I forget that goal? Well, think of this marathon runner, forgot about his goal, he'll become indisciplined, he won't win the crown.

So here, he says, I've got a goal, and I don't ever forget that. I run with an aim. And otherwise, after having stirred other people, come on, fellas, we've got to run the marathon, we've got to win the prize, we've got to run the marathon, and finally, he himself doesn't even qualify for the preliminary trials, because he was thoroughly indisciplined.

He says, I'll be disqualified. So, he's applying that to the Christian life, that I buffet my body, or the Living Bible says, I make my body do what it should do, and not what it wants to do. Beautiful paraphrase.

I make my body do what it should do, not what it wants to do. It's a discipline. We can sit back and say, oh Lord, do it all.

It's not that easy, because then you're asking the Lord to make you a robot. You know, you program a robot, and a robot will never masturbate or watch pornography, even if you put desires in it, but you programmed it that it doesn't yield to those desires. Because, that is automatic.

There is no virtue in it. There is no conquering in that. You're programmed to do it.

And if God made man like that, there would be no conquering. There would be no overcoming. So, part of this overcoming is to be disciplined.

And discipline is not just one area. Discipline, again, is a total area. If you're indisciplined in a number of areas, you'll find you're indisciplined in the sexual area too.

So, think of the words of Jesus in Revelation chapter 3, verse 21. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Think, this is like getting a gold medal in the Olympic Games.

It's like a trainer saying, hey listen, 50 years ago I won the Olympic Games. I won the marathon. I won it a number of times, many Olympic Games.

I know how to train you if you listen to me and I'll tell you what I did. And if you train like the way I did and won so many marathons in many Olympic Games myself, you listen to me, you'll win it too. And he's training a whole lot of people.

Some of them listen to him, some of them don't listen to him, just like human beings are. And the ones who listen to him go on and win the medal in the Olympic Games. The others don't, because they don't submit to his training.

So he says, I overcame, that's what he's saying. And I got the medal, I'm sitting at the Father's throne. Now you overcome even as I also.

Do exactly, I'm not asking you to do what I didn't do. Jesus is saying to you, you say you want to follow me, you sing such beautiful songs that I love you so much Lord, I want to do what you want to do. Well, he says, I discipline my earthly life, myself and my earthly life.

If you want to follow me, discipline yourself and your earthly life. So there are many areas where we can discipline ourselves. And what we read, and what we eat, the amount of time we spend in sleeping, just lazing around.

Once you've got up and woken up, there's absolutely no point in lying in bed, I'll tell you this, unless you're praying. There are some people who just wake up and laze around, they're lazy, they are indisciplined and then they fall into sexual temptation, they wonder why. Well, it's because you're indisciplined.

You can continue lying in bed after you wake up if you're praying, very good thing to do. But this is the area where we've got to be very, very careful. Paul was disciplined, Jesus says, overcome as I overcame.

And part of that discipline is to avoid things which will tempt us. 1 Corinthians 6, it says, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 18, flee from immorality. Flee from immorality.

In other words, immorality, temptation to sin, is too strong for you. Don't try to stand there and fight it, run away, because it's too strong for you. The devil is already conquered, you don't have to run away when the devil comes.

James 4, 7 says, when the devil comes, you resist him and he will flee. But when immorality temptation comes, that's too strong for you, you better flee. You put these two verses together, 1 Corinthians 6, 18, when immorality comes, you flee.

James 4, 7, when the devil comes, you stand there and make him flee. Tell me who is stronger? You don't run away from the devil, but you run away from immorality. It says that, in other words, you find there is a potential source of temptation.

You know, spending too much time with that girl is going to tempt me. There's only one thing you should do, run. Don't stand there and try to overcome it.

Don't go near a pornographic bookshop or magazines which have got certain dirty pictures in it. Don't try to see if you can overcome it. Drop it and run.

For example, when you're sitting at a computer and you're all alone perhaps, just by the way, I want to mention that if you've got a computer at home, always position it in such a way that your door is open and there's no curtain on the door, people can look inside and position it with your back to the door so that anybody passing by can see what you're watching on the computer. Not the other way around, where you are looking at the computer and your back is to the wall and they can't see what you're watching. This is just a little help to help you overcome temptation, that keep it in an open place and don't sit alone inside a locked room and watch.

That's where most of these temptations come. You see, married men fall into this too because they don't keep their computer in an open place. And if you finish your work in your office, don't hang around there.

Just get up and go home. And if you have to work alone, keep the door open, keep the thing open and if you find that while you're there or even while you're working on your computer, suddenly you're being tempted to, you know that site is not a good site, you're tempted to go there, just get up, go for a walk, go out for some while, even half an hour and then come back. You have fled from the temptation to immorality and God sees that, that you're not sitting around saying, yeah, I'm stronger than this immorality, I'm stronger than this temptation to go to this link.

I tell you, you will fall. Haven't you had enough experiences so far? You need more foolish things like that to convince you that you're too weak? Face up to it. You can stand against the devil but you cannot stand against immorality.

The only thing the Bible says is run. Then get up and run. And if you're at home, go and have a cold shower or something and then come back.

And take your mind off or go and, the best is if you can find some other brother to go and fellowship with for 10-15 minutes. That can strengthen you. Or find something like that, some diversion and come back, you'll find it easier.

These are some practical suggestions. And pray to God like Jesus did. Lord, help me.

I'm really slipping now. Hebrews and chapter 4 and verse 16 says in relation to Jesus being tempted as we are, Hebrews 4.15, Jesus was tempted as we are and did not sin. And you say, so what? He says, here is, I'll tell you what so what.

Hebrews 4.15, Jesus was tempted, did not sin. Therefore, you also, we also, let us go to the same throne of grace that he went to in his earthly days. And we can receive mercy which is forgiveness for all our past failures and find grace to help us in our time of need.

In the context of verse 15, what is the time of need? Time of temptation. At that time, ask for grace and get it. You have not because you ask not.

Oh God, give me this. Like the widow went to the judge and said, my enemy is oppressing me. There was no reply.

God, give me, give me. Luke 18, he kept on, kept on, kept on, she kept on and kept on and kept on and got what she wanted. And Jesus said there, when I come back to earth, will I find even a few people on earth who are praying like this for victory over their enemy? That's what he said in Luke 18, verse 8. When the son of man returns to earth, will he find even a few people among those who claim to be my children who will be like this widow who determined that she's going to not rest until she overcame the enemy.

I hope there will be many of you who are like that whom Jesus, when he comes back, will find. You have persisted and the Lord says at the end of this parable, Luke 18, 7, don't you think God will bring about justice or deliverance for his elect and you are one of his elect who cried to him day and night. Link that with Hebrews 5, 7. Jesus prayed with loud crying and tears who cried to him day and night.

Will he delay long over them? No. I tell you he will bring about that victory speedily. Take that as a promise.

Those of you who have been defeated for years, don't condemn yourself because that doesn't help. That is sinking deeper into the pit. You already fall into the pit and condemning yourself is digging the pit even deeper.

Getting discouraged is one more level deeper. You are going to make it more difficult to come out. Self-condemnation and discouragement after falling is making the pit still deeper.

You have already fallen a thousand feet, it will become three thousand feet. Finish with self-condemnation. Confess your sins.

Say, Lord, I slipped up. I am sorry. Forgive me.

I want to turn from this and get out of it and then follow the principles which I have been trying to share with you. How should we pray for deliverance? Let me give you an example from the Old Testament Israelites in Exodus chapter 2. Exodus chapter 2. Think of your desire to be free from pornography and masturbation and sexually impure thinking that you are a slave to. Compare yourself to the slaves in Egypt.

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. I don't know how long you have been slaves to that particular sin. But their masters would say, come on, come on, work.

The way you have been whipped to commit those sins in your thought or in watching dirty things. When are you going to get tired of it? It says in Exodus 2.23. It came about in the middle of that verse. The sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage.

You know what sighed means? It's not even a prayer. Lord, how long, oh Lord. How long, oh Lord.

It's a cry of a slave wanting to be free from this whip. Do you cry like that? They sighed and they cried out and they cried for help. Apply this to yourself now.

For deliverance from pornography, masturbation, every sexual sin. They cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. If God did that for those Israelites in the old covenant, don't you think he'll do it for you in the new covenant? The blood of Jesus, those followers of Moses, you're a follower of Jesus Christ.

God heard their groaning and he will hear yours. And God remembered his covenant in your case with Jesus Christ, the mediator of a new covenant. And God took notice of them and he brought them deliverance.

These things are written for our encouragement. But we must cooperate with God in disciplining ourselves, walking in the spirit. Walking is not an unconscious act.

It's a conscious act. Step by step by step by step. So as I said, we must start with the things that are easy.

So let me turn you to another verse. There was one city in the Bible which was notorious for sexual sin, unnatural sexual sin. Do you know what it was? Sodom.

Well known. I mean it's known even today. They even call it sodomy, the homosexual act of sin.

So Sodom was known for its sexual sin. They were perverted. Perversion comes when people go beyond normal sex and go into other perversions with men, with animals and all types of things.

It's a perversion. It's not normal. And the reason for their fall into that pit of deep perverted sexual sin is described in Ezekiel 16 and verse 49.

In Ezekiel 16 verse 49, the Lord says, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. How did Sodom descend into such terrible sexual sin? Number one, through arrogance. Arrogance means proud feeling that I am so important and better than others and bigger than others.

You see what has that got to do with sexual sin? It's got everything to do with sexual sin. You don't think there's a connection. There is.

Second, plenty of food. You see what I mean? Eating food has got a lot to do with sexual sin. Absolutely.

Indisciplined eating. Abundance of food because you've got so much money. You can go to this restaurant and that restaurant and waste the Lord's money on this and that and you know your mouth, your palate likes this and like that and the other.

Abundance of food. And then you wonder why you're a slave to sexual sin. Third, careless ease.

Laziness. Lolling around on bed as if nothing to do instead of getting up and doing something. Getting up and reading the scriptures.

Getting up and listening to a message. Getting up and reading a good Christian book. Instead of that you just lazily waste time and sit around in people's houses and gossip and lazy ease.

Careless ease. A careless lifestyle. Usually with people who got plenty of money.

Hard working farmers and all don't have time to have this careless ease. They have got so much work to do. And fourth, they did not help the poor and the needy.

They did not care for poor people. You see you mean my helping poor people has got something to do with victory over masturbation. What's the connection between that and sex? It's all one package.

This is how Sodom sank into sin. So what is this saying to us? There is not a mention of any sexual sin here. These are areas where you can do something.

You can discipline yourself in the area of food. Have you ever done that? Jesus said when you fast, don't let anybody know about it. You know that verse in Matthew chapter 6. He didn't say if you fast.

What did he say? When you fast. He didn't say if you pray. He said when you pray.

He didn't say if you give money to the poor. When you give money. So praying, giving, fasting are not ifs but when.

That means you do all of them but when you do it don't tell others about it. When you fast. And once some of the disciples, some others came to Jesus and said, why is it your disciples are not fasting? And he said that's because the bride room is right now with them.

So you can't fast when the bride room is there. Luke chapter 5. They said to Jesus in Luke 5.33. Disciples of John fast often. But your disciples are always eating and drinking.

And Jesus said that's because when the bride room is with them you can't make them fast. But Luke 5.35. The days will come when the bride room goes up to heaven. Then they will fast in those days.

Those are the days we are living in. I want to ask you, particularly you young people. Do you have the discipline of fasting in your life? Nobody taught me to do that.

I grew up in a brethren assembly where they never spoke about fasting once. They never talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit once. I read the scriptures and I found I had to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I had to fast.

So I didn't get any teaching from Pentecostal brethren. I got it from scripture, from Jesus teachings. So I was a working person.

I was working on a ship. I had to work everyday. And in the middle of my work I decided to fast.

Only drink liquids for a whole day and go about my work. And I find I could do it. I was young, 22 years old.

And I said Lord I want to discipline my body. And I sometimes would go too. Once I conquered one day then I would go for two days.

And just liquids. And what happened? I did that a number of times. I mean for many years as a discipline.

You know those days are over now of course because of age I can't fast as much. But I, in those days it was a regular feature. I once a week as a discipline.

Just to, for a number of things. It did accomplish two things in my life. One, it delivered me from the love of food.

I didn't become a slave. I got to eat this. I got to eat that.

It's helped me a lot in my traveling in the ministry of the Lord. So many places where I get all types of food. Something which sometimes is not even according to my taste.

I say okay Lord I am not a slave to food. I came here to serve you. If I get food I eat it.

If I don't get food, it's okay. If it's not according to my taste I still eat it. I just eat it for survival.

I eat to live. Don't live to eat. Many people live to eat.

We are not to live to eat. We are to eat to live. So it helped me a lot.

Just this discipline. One is it delivered me from the love of food. And secondly I began to realize what it is to be hungry.

You know you have been eating regularly. You don't eat for one day. I said Lord now I see what that poor beggar on the street is facing who hasn't had food for two days.

It gave me greater compassion for the hungry and the homeless which is a good thing. All these things have an overall effect on our personality. You know to give us, it's connected there.

You saw there in 1st Ezekiel 16 49. Abundance of food and no care for the poor and the needy. The more money you spend on yourself, listen, the more money you spend on yourself, the less money you have to give to God and to needy believers.

It's true. You can say I earned all this. I am not cheating anybody.

Really? You could have been born with a mental defect. What would you have earned? You could have had an accident that paralyzed you when you were 20 years old. What would you be earning today? Humble yourself.

Say God has given me health. God has preserved me. There is not a cent I earned that is mine.

Maybe you inherited something from your parents. I mean God allowed your parents to be wealthy. Good.

But what credit can you take for that? Be humble always and say Lord thank you for what you have given me. Let me live as a steward of whatever you have given me. Let me never think that I am somebody or I am better than anybody else.

I am better than nobody. You will have a greater compassion for poor people. I am not saying that if you go giving, distributing money to all the people on the streets here, you will overcome masturbation.

You won't. Don't misunderstand me. I am talking about an attitude.

Always we change the teaching on attitude and action. It's not action. You don't show love for your neighbor by visiting all your neighbor's houses.

Attitude. I am talking about an attitude. I am not talking about now supporting orphanages and widow's homes.

No, no, no. It's an attitude towards poor people. An attitude towards to try and understand what they are going through and then to be led by God.

Not just to give it indiscriminately but say Lord my money is, I realize now it's not my own. I can't take any credit. I tell you I have seen young people in CFC who are pretty proud of what they earn and they think that it's their smartness and cleverness that's enabled them to get such qualifications and get good jobs in companies.

I'll tell you honestly, you think I envy them? Far from it. I feel sorry for them. I said Lord where are these people going to be another generation for you in this church? They are so taken up with their jobs and their money.

Where is the humility that will enable them to get grace from you to overcome sin and to be able to minister your word with power in the days to come? So dear brothers take this very seriously. Discipline is very, very important. And so it's not, it's a combination of the life of Jesus plus your cooperation.

Let me turn to Philippians in chapter 2. Philippians in chapter 2 it says, verse 12, the last part and verse 13. Work out your salvation from sin. Who's got to do it? You've got to work out with fear and trembling because you're so weak.

Because God is at work in you. Whenever it says God is at work in you, it's always referring to the Holy Spirit. God the Father works outside us and the world around us making all circumstances work for our good.

God the Son intercedes for us with the Father's right hand. God the Holy Spirit works inside us to desire and to do his good pleasure. In other words to give us the desire to do his will and the ability to do his will.

That's the meaning of Hebrews 8 and verse 10 where it says I will write my law in your mind and put it in your mind and write it on your heart. Put it in your mind means he gives you the desire to do his will. To write it on my heart means he gives me the ability to do his will.

I need two things. Desire to do God's will. Ability, mind and heart.

That's a new covenant. The old covenant was you shall, you shall, you shall. New covenant is God says I will, I will, I will.

Isn't that much better? Compare Exodus 20 with Hebrews 8 sometime. Exodus 20 is always thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not. And God says that covenant is a failure, I've abolished it.

Hebrews 8 says this is the new covenant, not thou shalt, I will. I will put my laws into your mind, I will write them on your heart means I'll give you the desire to do my will, I'll give you the ability to do my will and you will do it. That's what the Holy Spirit does.

That's what we see here. God is at work in you to will, that is to write it in the mind, put it in the mind and to work it out. That's writing in the heart.

But I, it's not automatic, it's not like a robot. Okay Lord, now do it. No.

You have to cooperate, you got to work it out. So that's why I say you got to flee. If you find that time the temptation getting so strong, you have to cooperate with God and work it out by God's given you a desire for purity and you see that thing is leading you to impurity.

You work out your salvation by shutting off your computer and getting up and going away from there, coming back a little later. Running away. By throwing away those magazines and not having anything in your house that will tempt you.

And not going to places where you don't necessarily be tempted. And if you are going around with other friends of yours and they are going to places which are, find some excuse to get away from there. You can always say I've got to do something else.

You don't have to tell them what it is. Or I, you know John Wesley, he had a habit of getting up at a certain time every morning. But if you want to get up early in the morning, you have to go to bed at a particular time at night.

So whenever he was in conversation with people beyond a certain time, 9pm or something, he'd say hey, I've got somebody important to meet tomorrow morning, so excuse me. And he'd get up and go. Because for him, meeting that important person in the morning was very important.

He couldn't afford to just laze around and neglect the meeting in the morning with that important person who was waiting to meet him. That was the difference. That's what made John Wesley a man of God.

And that's what makes all these indisciplined Christians today who just laze around and don't respect Jesus as someone whom they should meet and is very important to meet. I mean, they would take more care to meet the President of India than to meet Jesus Christ. But no wonder they treat God as something third-rate.

No wonder that because they don't honor God, God doesn't honor them. They are defeated, defeated, defeated till the end of their life. They sing hymns and songs and clap their hands and attend all the meetings and they say, I got stirred by that message.

I was blessed by that message. But nothing happens. Even after 15-20 years, they are in the same rut.

Honor God. Respect Jesus Christ a little more. That's what I say.

And take this matter of discipline seriously. And I believe that God is interested. So let me maybe conclude with a few thoughts from Luke chapter 11, verse 13.

If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to help those who ask Him? So, this how much more indicates that if an earthly father will care to help his children with food or good things, how much more means, God is, Jesus is trying to stir faith in His disciples. Lord, my Father, you are more eager to give me the Holy Spirit power than I am eager to receive it. That's faith.

I've heard numerous people say, brother, I prayed and prayed and prayed and God doesn't give it to me. I say, you'll never get it. In a hundred years, you pray like that, you won't get it because you're starting with unbelief.

Your unbelief is what? I am very eager to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. But God doesn't seem to be so eager. That is unbelief.

That's the definition of unbelief is, I am very eager to get what God has promised, but God doesn't seem so eager. It's my definition of unbelief. And here is my definition of faith.

God is more eager to give me what He has promised in scripture than I am eager to receive it. I'm not talking about anything I want. I'm not talking about these foolish requests.

People say, ask God to give you a big car or a big house or make you a great preacher or give you a big church. No, there are no such promises in scripture. I'm talking about sin shall not have dominion over you.

Do all things without murmuring and complaining. Flee from the love of money that God is able to give me that power and will give it to me. And He is much more eager than I am to receive it.

I say, that's faith. And when you come, God is more eager to give me victory over sin than I am to receive it. How many of you can say, look up to God and say, God, I believe my father.

You are a hundred times more eager to deliver me from masturbation and pornography than I am. My desire is weak compared to your passionate desire. I believe it.

So naturally you're going to do it for me. How much more? This is a good thing. I'm not asking for a bad thing.

Earthly fathers, if I went to an earthly father and asked him for something good, he won't say, hang on, I wait, get hungry a little more. No. How much more? That is faith.

But faith alone is not enough. When speaking about the Holy Spirit, here is faith. But Jesus said in relation to the Holy Spirit, who is one who comes and gives us this power.

In John 7, he said, if anyone thirst, let him come to me. There are two types of people whom Jesus invited to come to him. John 7, 37, if you're thirsty.

He didn't say if anybody wants to come, come. No. Are you thirsty? Thirsty means your mouth is parched with thirst.

You're dying of thirst in a desert. That way you're longing for deliverance from masturbation, pornography. And like the other type of people whom Jesus asked was, come to me, those who are weary and heavy laden, those who are sick and tired of being defeated.

Have you come to that place? Have you, like the disciples, tried, tried, tried all night to catch fish? Tried, put the net this side, put the net that side. You've tried everything possible and you haven't succeeded. Don't give up.

Don't give up. Supposing those disciples had tried from six o'clock in the evening till midnight and said, oh well, it's not worth nothing. They wouldn't have, they'd have missed out on Jesus.

They persisted, persisted, persisted till just when they were about to give up, Jesus came on the shore and said, cast your net on the right side and immediately. It's amazing what God can do. Suddenly you're delivered and you don't even know how it happened.

It's a miracle. So discipline yourself. I'll tell you a little bit of my younger days.

I was 21, 22, tempted just like all of you are. And I had to struggle and struggle and say Lord and mercifully God brought me out. But discipline helped a lot.

One was every morning when I got up, I would kneel down and pray by my bed and then go to the Bible. First thing in the morning. And I was working, I was working in the naval base those days and read it and study it at a fixed time and write notes and things like that.

My mind was taken up with that. It had the bite, the advantage of that is today I know the Bible so well. But in those days it protected me a lot from sexual temptation early in the morning.

And then when I came back home at night, again I would need to study the Bible and kneel down and pray and then go to bed. Small disciplines every day. And then when I finished during the day, I was busy with my work.

And when the day was over, I mean work was over for the day, usually around 4 o'clock or something, I would visit some family for fellowship. I was a single young man, I had a scooter, visit some family or go for some meeting or sometimes in those days we could even preach in the streets and I would go out preaching in the streets. And different things, I would go for some meeting somewhere.

And I kept myself busy like that, visiting different families and or other young people, fellowshipping with them and discipline when I'm alone in my room. And I tell you, it kept me from so many temptations for days and weeks and months and years. It was discipline.

And keeping myself occupied with the Word and activity and things like that. I would really encourage you to do what Paul says, I discipline my body, make it do what it should do and not what it wants to do. I really encourage you, seek God for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do this and when you cry out to God and say, Lord, I'm sick and tired of this defeated life, God will help you. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 7. It says there about, it's really referring to marriage. It says here about to avoid immorality, let each one have his own wife.

So obviously, Paul realizes that the final solution for this is getting married. It's not that, if God called you to a single life, then of course he'll give you grace for it, that you won't be lifelong struggling with it. But very few people God calls to a single life, the time come when you get married.

But it's wonderful if you can overcome this before you get married. You feel like a conqueror when you go into marriage. Very few people enter like that, marriage like that.

But we can have a new generation growing up who haven't failed like the older generation. So I want to encourage you, I've tried to cover everything that I can think of. You know there's no easy solution, one, two, three.

If there were, God Almighty knows what a tremendous temptation, sexual temptation is. And if there were three easy steps, somewhere in the Bible it would be written, three easy steps to overcome sexual temptation. It isn't there.

Why hasn't God given us something like that when he knows this is the biggest temptation we are facing? Because there is no three easy steps. But if you think of all that I've shared with you now, take sin as a whole, seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit, discipline yourself, fill your mind with God's word, let your mind be renewed to more and more to think as God thinks. And I believe that you can live a life free from temptation.

That you can come to a place where it doesn't even tempt you. I can tell you honestly, these things don't even bother me. For many years, I've never been even tempted to click any link or anything.

No, not at all. God just protected me. And I've got a computer, I use it every day.

It's a question of, if you really discipline, God can help you. And the result is that you can have such an anointing when you share God's word with other people. If you really battle it, my brothers, don't give up.

That's all I plead with you. Don't give up this battle. Never, never, never.

And say, Lord, I'm determined to be an overcomer. And remember this, if you remain defeated, don't think marriage will solve the problem completely. There are many, many people who are slaves to pornography, just like they're slaves to alcohol, even after they get married.

So determined to overcome it before you get married. Otherwise, you're going to have serious problems. There are cases of women who have divorced their husbands because their husbands are slaves to pornography.

It's an addiction, just like alcohol. It's like addiction, just like drugs. So fight it.

And I believe that if you're really faithful, God can help you. And I give you my testimony not to boast, I'm a sinner saved by grace. But like Paul said, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

And there should be many of you who should be able to testify to it. But I've also cried out like Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And I cried out like those Israelites. I wept on my pillow at night many, many times.

It wasn't an easy road. And it wasn't something that happened like that overnight. It finally comes to that, but it's preceded by long periods of struggle and crying out.

If Jesus had to pray with loud crying and tears, where are you and I? But I also say if Jesus could overcome as a man like us, we can overcome. Don't ever let the devil tell you you can't overcome. I want to tell you in Jesus name you can overcome.

And if you fall, get up immediately. Don't wait. You shouldn't get discouraged there.

Get up immediately, confess your sin, forsake it and be strong again. If you do that, fall will be less frequent and gradually a time will come it'll become less and less and less. And you're free.

What a deliverance it'll be. That it's like the Israelites walking out of Egypt completely free after years of slavery. Believe that, that God who did that for the Israelites, the God who lived in Moses time is just the same today.

The God who helped Paul in Romans 7 and 8, the same God who will help you. So let's go to him with faith and say, Lord, I believe in this area where there's such a lot of sin in the world around it. There's a number one area of sin today is pornography among believers also.

And it's going to be a terrible thing that God is going to do to all these people who produce these pornographic films and movies. One more thing, you know, we have to use every single weapon that we can to fight against this and the renewing of our mind and to think in a certain way will also help us. And one of the things which helped me was to think.

Supposing you, this is what I've taught people also, when you're tempted with a girl to say, Lord, you made her to be a child of God. You want her soul to be saved. Jesus died in order that she might be born again.

It'll be very difficult for you to lust after her once you begin to think of her like that, a soul to be saved, a body. She's all dressed up in a very tempting way, but it's because she doesn't know you made her body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. She's made it a temple of the devil.

Lord, please help me that I don't get tempted by that. Or if you know these pornographic pictures, remember who's that girl out there stripping her clothes and doing all that rubbish. Supposing it were your sister, desperately in need of money, going in.

How would you feel if it was your sister stripping her clothes and giving herself to some man? You'd get mad at that man. And very often, some of these girls are just kidnapped from some street and forced into it. They're not gone into it voluntarily.

Most of them are forced and beaten and hammered into producing these films. And are you going to pay money to support that industry? Are you going to watch it? That poor girl who's been tortured, kidnapped out of some home, tortured into submission, to act in those pornographic films, and you support it at least by watching it? Shame on us if you do it. Think of it as your sister.

Or if you're married, your wife, going and giving herself to some other man like that. Or if it's just nudity, exposing herself. How would you like your grown-up sister exposing herself to some other man just to get money? Your own sister.

You wouldn't want that. But you look at that and say, ah, that's somebody else's sister. Who cares? That attitude.

Somebody else's sister. Who cares? Every one of them is your sister. It's your daughter.

Would you want your daughter to do that? That should give you a detestation for anything like nudity or pornography or any such thing. And you say, Lord, I want to hate it with all my heart. I want to hate that whole system that degrades women and that kidnaps poor innocent girls.

It's happening in India too. Much more in the United States and every country now. Many times when I hear of these things, I say, Lord Jesus, come soon.

Establish your kingdom. Pray that prayer. Draw close to the Lord.

And I believe the Lord can help all of us to be free from this terrible sin which has become a plague. A plague. People are afraid of the flu.

I say, you've got to be more afraid of pornography than the flu. More afraid of these sins that are spreading like the plague. Stand up against it and have nothing to do with it.

May God help you. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our Father in heaven, you know the struggle many of your children are having in the sexual area.

I pray that you will give them first of all a desire, passionate desire to be free from it. And then give them the ability to overcome it. Give them the strength to discipline them in the easier areas of food and laziness and compassion for the needy.

To humble themselves for you give grace to the humble. To live in humility constantly so they can receive grace constantly. Dear Lord Jesus, you're an example for us.

Thank you. Thank you for coming to this earth. To be tempted like we are.

To be an example for us. You didn't have to. You could have just come and died and gone away.

That would have taken care of our sin. But you also wanted to be an example for us and you lived on earth, faced every temptation we ever faced and overcame. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Help us to see your footsteps and walk in them. And we know you'll help everyone here. Thank you Father.

Thank you all those who are longing. I pray that you will give them the faith which is to believe that you are more eager to deliver them from that sin than they are. That their desire for deliverance is not even one percent of your desire to deliver them.

From this day help them to have that faith. For many a time they have may have prayed in unbelief thinking that their desire to be free is greater than your desire to free them. They've insulted you Lord by such an attitude but give them faith today.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.