#9: God Is an Ever-present Help for the Sexual Struggler

I. Introduction
A. The sexual struggle often seems overwhelming and overpowering.
1. Satan loves to whisper messages of hopelessness into our ear. “You’ll never make it.” “You’ll never break free.” “There is no hope for you.” He knows the destructive power of faith-less resignation.
2. But over and over God tells us that because of Him, we are never without hope. Jesus came to address the problem of our sin.
3. Let me ask you: Which is bigger in your own mind: your sin or God’s grace?
a. “There is more grace in Christ than there is sin in us.” – Sibbes
b. The God who is in us is a mighty God! Listen to Psalm 144:1-2: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”
B. We have been talking about truths from the word of God which we need in our struggle against sexual sin.
1. Hopefully we’ve seen in this series how important the word of God is in our struggle with sin.
2. Psalm 119:9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”
3. As Dwight Moody said, “The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
4. And, by the way, I know that there are other sexual struggles, sexual struggles which need a different set of Bible truths. But, if nothing else, this series shows us how the Bible speaks to all of our struggles, sexual and otherwise.
C. But Bible truths aren’t enough. It’s not just a matter of knowing. We need God’s grace, His power at work, as well. We need God’s help. And so our final truth in this series is that God is an ever-present help for us.
II. The help of God
A. We can’t bear any good fruit without God’s help. It is our only hope. Jesus said, “Without Me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
B. “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” – Psalm 145:18–19
C. The second half of 2016 I’ll be preaching a series on the Holy Spirit: our Helper, our Advocate, our Comforter,
1. He helps us to entrust ourselves to God and rest in Him.
2. He gives us grace to see the glory of God in the face of Christ and be able to resist temptation.
3. He convicts of sin and grants repentance.
4. He helps us to abhor sin and turn away from evil.
5. He gives us love for others instead of looking at them selfishly.
D. Not only is the Lord our Helper, He is jealous when we look elsewhere for help instead of looking to Him.
1. I’ve been reading through Isaiah, one of the major prophets in the OT. And like in many of the OT prophets, God often expresses jealousy over the fact that His people keep looking to worldly help to solve their problems, or to their own strength, instead of looking to Him.
2. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” Zech.4:6
3. God wants us to look to Him for help.
E. There’s a great story about this in Matthew 14:25ff. One night, the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee on a boat when Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But Jesus said, “It’s OK. Do not be afraid. It’s Me!” Peter called to Him, “Lord, if it is really you, command me to come to you on the water.” And so Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he became afraid, and began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
1. This is just like our lives as we strive to walk in the way of Christ. Walking in righteousness is a miracle, it can only be done with divine, supernatural power.
2. When we take our eyes off Jesus, we begin to sink back into our natural sinful condition.
3. But even then, Jesus does not reject us, but in understanding reaches out to rescue (and lovingly rebuke).
4. This is truly a God worthy of worshiping!
F. God doesn’t always help us in the way we want to be helped. But He always helps those who cry out to Him.
1. He calls us to a program of persistent pleading for His help, without losing heart: to keep on asking, keep on knocking, keep on seeking. That brings us to the subject of...
III. Prayer
A. Jesus calmed another storm in Mark 4:35–41. Jesus was with His disciples in the boat this time. And a great windstorm arose; the waves were breaking into the boat, such that the boat was getting filled with water. But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Turning to His disciples, He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” This story teaches us a number of lessons about prayer.
1. First of all, notice how long it often takes before disciples of Jesus finally resort to going to Jesus.
2. Notice also how Jesus allowed the storm to continue until they gave up on their own ability to solve the problem and finally came to Him. This means that life is harrowing if Jesus is our last resort!
3. Now couldn’t Jesus have prevented this storm from rising in the first place?
a. But there was a reason for the storm. Jesus wanted to humble them. He wanted to teach them to come to Him. He wanted to show them His power. He wanted them to learn to trust Him. He wanted them to learn to come to Him immediately and without panic.
b. God has similar purposes in all our struggles, even the sexual struggle.
4. This was their prayer: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Pretty pathetic, huh? But it’s not that different than the prayers we sometimes pray. And amazingly, Jesus didn’t turn their prayer away. True, He rebuked them for the lack of faith which was behind it. But He did answer with deliverance, didn’t He?
B. I have recommended the practice of writing psalms to you before, prayers designed not only for one time use, but for repeated use, prayers about the things we perpetually struggle with.
C. If that is too hard, you can always get into the business of rewriting psalms. Find psalms or parts of psalms which relate to what you’re going through and reword them to fit your situation more perfectly.
D. But sometimes we don’t have the spiritual strength to write our own psalms, just like sometimes you don’t have the strength to cook dinner. But God has preprepared meals in the freezer for us! For the sexual struggler, here are a few tidbits from the psalms which give you a taste of the wealth of prayer resources there is for us in the book of Psalms:
1. Psalm 28:1–2 To you, LORD, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
2. Psalm 35:1–9 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! 2 Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! 3 Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” 4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! 5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away! 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! 7 For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. 8 Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his destruction! 9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation.
3. Ps.141:4, 8-10 Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! ...My eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely.
E. These are all prayers for God’s help. But the Bible also gives us much help for prayer specifically in the face of sin.
1. We already talked about “Lead us not into temptation” – Matt.6:13 (that we’re not supposed to wait till temptation comes to begin praying).
2. And then there are the words Jesus spoke in Gethsemane, the night before His crucifixion, in Matt.26:41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The disciples were at the end of a long and emotionally draining day. And now they were very tired and ready for sleep. But it wasn’t time for sleep; it was time for prayer. The day of their biggest test ever was about to dawn. And so Jesus pled with them to plead for God’s help. They didn’t and they failed the test miserably.
3. And then there’s Psalm 51, David’s prayer of repentance after his sin with Bathsheba. It’s too long to read entirely. But here are some highlights:
a. Asking for forgiveness, mercy, washing —
(1) 1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
(2) 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
(3) 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
b. Asking for God’s work in changing the heart —
(1) 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
(2) 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
(3) (This shows the fallacy of waiting until your heart is right before you cry out to God for help. We need to cry out to God when we realize there’s something wrong with our hearts and ask Him to forgive us and to change our hearts!)
c. All religious rituals are meaningless to God if one is not coming to God in repentance. —
(1) 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
(2) 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
(3) 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
IV. You see, not only is Christ our helper, He is our lover.
A. Jesus said that when a demon is expelled, seven more will come to take its place if its place isn’t filled with something else (Luke 11:24-26).
B. We are vulnerable to all sorts of demonic attacks if our hearts aren’t filled with Jesus!
C. The Puritan Thomas Chalmers preached a famous sermon about this entitled: The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
D. It’s we see Jesus for who He is, it’s when we embrace Him in love, it’s when we’re captivated by His beauty, only then do the world’s dazzling temptations lose their luster.
E. That’s why we need to be praying prayers like: “Draw me to Yourself. Open my eyes to see the beauty of Christ. Show me how much better He is than all the fleeting treasures of this world and this life.”
V. All this doesn’t mean tools aren’t helpful. One of the ways God helps us is by giving us things to help us. And so we should make use of these means of grace.
A. One of the ways God helps us is through one another, e.g. accountability partners.
a. I’ve been meeting with a nutritionist in an attempt to address those issues in my life. We began with keeping an eating journal, which was very helpful. I recommend the same thing in holding each other accountable. Keep a journal recording everything done each day to share with your friend.
b. And make sure to pick someone who isn’t going to be too easy on you because of their own struggles. If you’re drowning, you need someone to help you who can swim himself.
B. Then there is internet accountability software. There are filters and there are accountability reports which record sites you visit and send reports to your accountability partners. I use Covenant Eyes, but there are others as well.
C. Then there is HarvestUSA, a ministry to sexual strugglers of every type, which has materials and counseling and seminars and many other helps.
VI. There is so much more which could be said. But it would be a shame to talk about the help we can receive from God without reading a passage from the letter of Hebrews which we covered in 2015.
A. Hebrews 4:15–16 “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
B. Jesus understands what we’re going through. He doesn’t just allow us to petition Him for help, He throws open the doors of His gracious presence and promises mercy and grace to those who come.