Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

YES, YOU CAN BEAT SEXUAL TEMPTATION! 

“Win the battle against sex and you win the battle of your life. Lose it, then you lose the battle of your life,”

God told us never to lie, never to steal but never did He tell us, not to have sex.

He only told us to stay put – wait – for the right time to have it, inside the boundaries of marriage.

Just remember, you are not banned from sexual pleasure –

the pleasure about which Hollywood entertainer Woody Allen quipped,

“It’s the best fun one could have, without laughing” – forever.

Just remember a day is coming when you can have all of it – on the day of your wedding.

Duke Jeyaraj | YouVersion

Sexual temptation victory begins in the mind!

We live in a generation saturated and sunk, drenched and drugged with sex.

Push-button sex is Satan’s No.1 enticement to this “Me First” generation which says, “I want pleasure, and I want it, now!”

“The movie icons are yielding to it.

The sports superstars are yielding to it. Why, even some of Christianity’s star preachers are yielding to it.

And Why then should I be an exception?” says that typical, tired, stumbling, Christ-believing youngster when it comes to sexual temptation.

Why’s that?

It’s because sexual temptations are powerful, penetrative and almost permanent.

So, if you can’t beat them you think let me join them.

Well, you CAN beat them.

My personal meditation on the scriptures has given me ten ways to beat sexual temptations.

“Win the battle against sex and you win the battle of your life. Lose it, then you lose the battle of your life,”

wrote Billy Graham as early as 1957 (quoted by George Verwer in “The Lordship of Christ,” found at www.urbana.org on 3 March 2007). 

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

What is the first Bible method to beat sexual temptation?

I would say “SET” – set your mind to beat it!

The very first step to beat sexual temptation or any temptation concerns our mind.

If you quizzed Daniel on how he beat temptations that pertained to the desires of his body

(in his case it was the temptation to eat tasty food that may have been openly offered to idols and later offered to him)

this would be his reply: “I made up my mind not to defile myself…” (Dan 1:8 NLT).

We must set our mind to appreciate the fact that sin’s pleasures are at best “fleeting” (Heb 11:25).

Moses, once he recognized this, could bid farewell to a royal life in the Egyptian Palace (where sexual pleasure was there for the asking!).

When we have it in our mind that a single day in God’s courts is better than a thousand anywhere else, then, we can stay far from sin (Psa 84:10).

Very often Satan would entice us with sexual temptation saying we would feel awesome if we yielded to it.

But the end result would be that we would feel awful after an initial elation.

The confessions of famous people who drink sexual sin like water helps us further to understand this.

A famous German tennis player had a fling with a Russian model following his defeat in his last Wimbledon game.

He confessed, “It was an act that lasted five seconds. I never saw her again or before. It’s a mistake that is going to haunt me for the rest of my life…

The result is brutal for me (the Russian model became pregnant as a result), especially for my wife, my children and my mother” (Times of India, 11 April, 2001).

Say you have an option of getting into a permanent job and temporary job, what would you naturally choose?

The permanent job obviously!

But when it comes to temptation – especially sexual temptation – we choose the temporary job.

I say that because we chase after passing pleasures when there are eternal pleasures at the right hand of God (Psalms 16:11). 

Daniel 1:8 KJV

[8] But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat,

nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
https://bible.com/bible/1/dan.1.8.KJV 

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

Sprinting and Sweating as Bible methods of beating sexual temptation

What is the second Bible method to beat sexual temptation?

 I would say “SPRINT” – sprint from the source of temptation. 

Beating other types of temptation may require “resisting” (1 Pet 5:9) while beating sexual temptations requires “running” – away from the source – be it a person, a situation, or a place (2 Tim 2:22).

Joseph did and he won.

He sprinted from the person – “he refused to even be with her” and then from the sin-inducing situation – “left his cloak … and ran out” (Gen 39: 10,12).

The young man of Proverbs 7 did not and he lost.

It was expected because “He was going … near her corner” (Prov 7:8 NIV).

King Solomon, a man who had seen it all has some solid advice: “Do not go near the door of her house” (Prov 5:8 NIV).

If your eyes keep zeroing in on the object causing the temptation like how David’s telescopic eyes zeroed in on the bathing Bathsheba,

or Samson’s eyes on the Gaza prostitute be sure you’ve bought the ticket to disaster (2 Sam 11:2-3; Judges 16:1). 

Deliberately look away when you see a sexually seducing source, like how you’d look away when your eyes spot an electric welding arc. 

A person who plays the fool and stays at close quarters with a sexually seducing source, still expecting to come out clean,

is like a wishful thinking fool who expects his clothes to be unburnt after having scooped fire on his lap (Prov. 6:27)

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

What is the third Bible method to beat sexual temptation?

I would say “SWEAT” – don’t mind the sweat when it comes to doing the things that God would be proud of us doing. 

 

David lazily shrunk away from the job he was supposed to be doing – waging war.

So, he ended up doing what he was not supposed to do – making love with a woman who was not his wife (2 Sam 11:2).

On that catastrophic day he woke up in “the evening” (2 Sam 11:2).

I’d imagine he slept right through the morning and got up only in the evening!

“The bed of sloth is often the bed of lust,” wrote Matthew Henry, the great Bible Commentator (found at www.searchgodsword.org).

When Amnon lazily shrunk into his bed even though he was perfectly all right, he ended up raping his half-sister (2 Sam 13).

The message is clear: laziness is a sure-fire ticket to sexual sin.

Standing waters gather filth, haven’t you noticed?

Sweat it out at the job you are called to do and the force compelling you to do the forbidden can be quenched. 

Proverbs 6:27 KJV
[27] Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?
https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.6.27.KJV 

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

Taking drastic steps to beat sexual temptation

What is the fourth Bible method of beating sexual temptation? 

I would say, “SNAP-FREE”- snap-free, do what it takes to wrench yourself away from the situation of temptation that may come, despite being careful. 

When Jesus said “gouge” your eye which “causes you to sin,” He advocated the use of drastic steps to check and curb the onslaught of sexual passions (Math 5:28-30).

Joseph snapped free from the wife of Potiphar when he came to know about her immoral intentions.

He understood Jesus’ “gouge-your-eye” message.

Chuck Swindoll, the famous American Bible teacher,  gives specific instructions when he checks into any hotel to the staff

to block all pornographic channels that go into the television in his hotel room (Found at www.ccel.us/Swindoll.chap3.html)

He sure understood Jesus’ “gouge-your-eye” message.

Billy Graham once narrated an incident about how one of his associate evangelists,

staying alone in a Paris hotel, locked himself in and threw the key out through the window,

when the temptation to go out and visit the strip-tease joints in Paris where no one would know him became almost unbearable

(I heard this story in a Ravi Zacharias sermon tape).

That evangelist, too, understood Jesus’ “gouge-your-eye” message.

The Bible says that bulls with the habit of goring must be kept penned up (Exodus 21:29).

“Believer bulls” who know that they have a special weakness for “sexual goring” should “pen up” themselves with such kinds of special and drastic steps for beating sexual temptations. 

Samuel said to all the people of Israel,

“If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth…” (I Sam. 7:3).

Ashtoreth is the name of the Canaanite goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war (The Nelson Study Bible, page 462).

So, the images that God wanted his people to destroy were images that were probably sexuality explicit.

They certainly look like pornographic images that the people of Israel enjoyed looking at.

These had to be destroyed.

A doctor, who heard Billy Graham preach in London in 1954, confessed that his waiting room was full of pornographic literature.

After surrendering his life to Jesus, “he immediately gathered it up and threw it into the Thames,” writes Billy Graham (Just As I am, p. 229.).

When you take such drastic steps, you can win over sexual temptation! 

Selecting an accountability friend and shooting scriptures to beat sexual temptation

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

What is the fifth Bible method of beating sexual temptation? 

I would say, “SELECT” – select an accountability friend.

“Two are better than one … if one falls down, his friend can help him up” (Eccl 4:9,10 NIV).

Thus wrote Solomon, I believe, because he missed an “accountability” friend in his life.

His father had a Nathan who could look him in the eye and tell him;

“You may be king, but you need to measure up!” when he fell into sexual sin.

But Solomon had no such court-prophet-friend –

someone who’d not only pat him on the back when was on song, but also correct him when he went wrong.

On the other hand, ungodly friends and their corrupting counsel could surely lure you into sexual sin.

It was Ahithophel’s corrupting advice –

“Lie with your father’s concubines” that made Absalom perform a sexual exhibition “in the sight of all Israel” (2 Sam 16:20-22).

Amnon’s friend Jonadab poisoned his mind to egg him on to play a drama to rape his half-sister (2 Sam 13: 3-5). 

Select a friend with whom you can share with confidence the struggles you face in beating sexual temptations – even the failures.

Giving him the authority to check you will go a long way in helping you beat it.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov 27:17 NIV).

I am really benefited in my life with the help of an “accountability” friend. I can tell you that this really works!

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained 

What is the sixth Bible method of beating sexual temptation? 

I would say, “SHOOT” – shoot Scripture verses you have stored in your heart at the hour of temptation. 

From the warnings against adulterous women in Proverbs we read this:

“These commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light … keeping you from the immoral woman” (Prov 6:23,24 NIV).

Quote the scriptures and you won’t court the devil when he brings those seductive temptations to you.

Shoot scripture verses to shoo away the Devil!

That is what Jesus did. He quoted three verses from the book of Deuteronomy to send Satan scurrying (Math 4).

Tempted to watch pornography?

Quote II Sam 11:27, “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord”

(The first thing he did in that chapter was to have a long, lingering, lustful, look at the disrobed Bathsheba who was having her bath).

Is Satan seducing you to touch the opposite sex intimately?

Then quote Proverbs 5:20,

“Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?” (NIV) Or quote Proverbs 6:29,

“No one who touches her will go unpunished.” (NIV).

Addicted to the act of masturbation?

Then quote Gal 5:16,

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (NIV) Or I Cor 7:9,

“But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry (not masturbate, mind you!).

For it is better to marry (not masturbate, please note!) than to burn with passion!”(NIV).

Is anyone inviting you into a homosexual relationship?

Then quote I Cor 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral…nor homosexual offenders will inherit the Kingdom of God” (NIV).

Psalm 101:3, Mathew 5:28, Job 31:1 are other potential “bombs” to bust sexual traps.

Then you can say with David, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psa 119:11 NIV).  

Staying Put and Swerving – 2 more bible ways of beating sexual temptation

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained 

What is the seventh Bible way of beating sexual temptation? 

I would say, “STAY-PUT” – stay-put, wait for just some more time and you would be able to have sex, the way God wants you to have it!

If I paraphrased Nathan’s question to David after his adultery it would be this way.

“If you wanted sex, you could have had it with your wife. Why in the world did you go after another man’s wife!” (2 Sam 12: 8,9).

The question Solomon asks us is also in the same vein, “Enjoy the wife you married as a young man! …

Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a whore?” (Prov 5:18,19. The Message).

God told us never to lie, never to steal but never did He tell us, not to have sex.

He only told us to stay put – wait – for the right time to have it, inside the boundaries of marriage.

Just remember, you are not banned from sexual pleasure – the pleasure about which Hollywood entertainer Woody Allen quipped,

“It’s the best fun one could have, without laughing” – forever. Just remember a day is coming when you can have all of it – on the day of your wedding.

Believe me, that very thought would puncture the pressure which gigantically builds up as we set out to beat sexual temptations! 

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

What is the eighth Bible way of beating sexual temptation?

I would say, “SWERVE” – swerve from the sinful ways you use up your boundless energy!

Any red-blooded young man would have a copious quantum of sexual energy,

which unless swerved – diverted – for other nobler purposes will definitely lead to inevitable sexual sin.

Blocking a furiously flowing river with a dam may be smart, but easing the pressure off the dam walls by diversion canals is brilliant, right?

Ask David, he’ll give a diversion idea: “advance against troop”, “scale a wall” (Psa 18:29 NIV).

Or ask the Nike shoes ad fellows and they would come this ready reply:

“Move. Hit a ball. Climb a hill. Run a mile. Don’t sit there. Just do it!”

I am not kidding – when your sexual energies magnetically pull you to watch a porn movie (“blue film” as it is called in India),

perhaps it’s time to diffuse that energy into the blue waters of the beach, swimming.

If “the glory of young men is their strength,” what can be more glorious than giving off our best strength to the Savior,

rather than to sinful sexual pleasures (Prov 20:29; 5:9 NIV). 

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

The ‘’Considering the Consequences” method of beating sexual temptation

What is the ninth Bible way of beating sexual temptation?

I would say, “SHUDDER” –

shuddering to think of the consequences of yielding to sexual sin will be a back-up motivation (if not THE main motivation) to overcome sexual temptation! 

I am talking about having a holy fear of God here.

That holy fear, apart from the love of God, can come in handy when it comes to winning over sexual sin.

The effects of yielding to sexual temptation are deadly.

It is a fact that the great Australian leg-spinner, Shane Warne, lost the honor of leading the Australian Cricket Team,

because of the phone sex scandals that surrounded him (learnt from www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041023/spr-trib.htm). 

From the Bible we read about the following lethal results when people have lapped up sexual sin:

Firstly, the LORD will leave you and you won’t know it.

Like it happened for Samson as he lay on Delilah’s lap (Jud. 16:20).

Secondly, you can never be a leader who will influence people for good.

Joseph, one who was famous among a set of 12 brothers for beating sexual temptation was told under Divine Inspiration that he would be “prince among his brothers”

while the one who slept with his father’s wife, Reuben, was told “you will be first no longer” (Gen. 49:4,26).

David, the great leader of Israel who had an adulterous affair, had to go silent when his son raped his daughter (2 Sam. 13: 21,22).

Thirdly, violence could become commonplace in your family.

David learnt this bitter truth when the lives of three of his Sons – Amnon, Absalom and Adonijah were cut short violently at the prime of their youth.

Fourthly, you would have given birth to spiritual enemies who will battle against you for the rest of your life.

The sons born to Lot’s daughters out of his incestuous relationship with them became ancestors for the Moabites and Ammonites –

–two of Israel’s most bitter enemies in their later years.

Fifthly, the advantages you may have gotten through sexual sins will melt away.

Remember, David’s love-child born as a result of his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba eventually died,

notwithstanding his plea that God would spare Him (2 Sam. 12:14).

Sixthly, God’s name will be blasphemed.

“You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you!'” wrote Paul (Rom. 2: 22,24).

Finally, when you persist stubbornly in sexual sin you’ll go to hell.

The Bible doesn’t mince words when it says “the sexually immoral – their place will be the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 21:8). 

L-U-S-T is a four letter sin that will take you to a four-lettered place – H-E-L-L.

Do these dreadful details from the Bible concerning those who indulged in sexual sin make you shudder?

It is meant to do just that.

Reason?

Shuddering (apart from the primary motivation of loving the Lord so much that sin becomes sickening) can also be biblical way to beat sexual temptation!

After proclaiming the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel (including the command, “You shall not commit adultery”) Moses told them,

“The fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning!” (Ex. 20:14,20).

The next time when you think of yielding to sexual temptations, take time to count the cost of yielding to them and you will find that thought not so pleasurable.  

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained

Beating sexual temptation through a Spirit Walk

What is the tenth Bible way of beating sexual temptation?

I would say “SPIRIT-WALK”. 

No – we cannot beat sexual temptation on our own strength.

We need the power from Above to tame the passions from within.

The person of the Holy Spirit will supply the power we need for the same.

Paul wrote that we can “put to death” what our sinful nature urges us to do through the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13 NIV).

He again writes in the same vein that “if we walk in the Spirit” we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature (Gal. 5:16 NIV).

The consciousness of the presence of the Lord enabled Joseph to resist the advances of an immoral woman (Gen. 39:3,10-12).

I was reminded of this when I read a letter written by an young women to a magazine.

Here are excerpts from that letter:

“I am a 27-year-old employed woman.

In a moment of madness, I had sex with a colleague of mine one evening when just the two of us were in the office working late.

Or rather, we thought that we were the only people in the office.

Actually, the office peon was there, and he saw us.

My colleague and I came to our senses that same night…But that peon is giving us trouble.

He is threatening to tell people in the office about what happened unless we give him money…(Women’s Era, August (First) 2006, pages 97-98).

The tone of the letter suggests to me that this young girl would not have indulged in sexual sin if she knew that the peon was there.

You know what – there is always someone watching us, wherever we are and whatever we do. That is God.

He says, “I am watching them closely, and I see every sin.

They cannot hope to hide from me!” (Jer. 16:17 NLT).

When we are always conscious that the Unseen One sees us –only the Holy Spirit can make us realize this on a minute-by-minute basis –

we can say “No” to sexual temptation like Joseph! 

YES, YOU CAN BEAT SEXUAL TEMPTATION! 

Also Read: Swipe Right – Scars mean Sex. – Diademng

Beating Sexual Temptation: The Bible Way Practically Explained