Would you all stand please? Now let's open our Bibles together to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 where again today we pick up our theme in this series of the invisible war, talking about removing strongholds. I begin reading in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 10. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Which better describes your life? An integer or a fraction? You remember your mathematics? Which is it that better describes your life? An integer or a fraction? A couple of weeks ago I was in a classroom setting where we were talking about Warren Wiersbie's fine book entitled The Integrity Crisis.
The front cover of the book gives a brief sentence like explanation of the book that was written in the late 80's. It says, quote, a blemished church struggles with accountability, morality, and lifestyles of its leaders and laity, close quote. You may recall the late 80's was known by some as pearly gate scandal in the church. I was in that classroom setting as we were discussing integrity and we were trying to define what integrity really means.
And we were reminded that the word integrity comes from the mathematic word integer. An integer is a whole number as opposed to a fraction. It is that which is complete. And as we tried to find an adjective for the word integrity, we decided that one of the best candidates is the word integrated. A man or woman of integrity is an integrated person. Where the pieces that make up all of us come together as a whole. Strongholds are just the opposite of that.
Spiritual strongholds segregate our lives. They divide our wholeness. They fracture our single hearted devotion to Christ. Spiritual strongholds occupy ground in our lives that rightfully belongs to Jesus Christ. These fortresses of sin can be in our thoughts or can be in our behavior, but they will inevitably bring disintegration to our lives. Therefore spiritual strongholds must be destroyed. They obstruct our spiritual progress and they threaten our future in God's kingdom.
Last week I began talking with you about one of the most common strongholds and that is immoral behavior. And because this is one that is so prominent and is so significant in the day in which we live, I felt compelled to devote another week to talk a bit more about immoral behavior as a potential stronghold in our lives. Now I want to be very clear that all of us, all of us can be tempted to immoral living. There's not a one of us who is above and beyond that.
But when I speak of it becoming a stronghold, I'm talking about more than simply being tempted to immoral thoughts or behavior. I'm talking about those of us who have actually taken up temptation. We've yielded to it and we've not repented of it. And as a result of the process of time in our yielding to temptation, immoral behavior or immoral thoughts have actually become a stronghold in our lives that denies who we are.
I want to pick up this morning and think about the tactics used by the enemy to bring bondage. You see a stronghold is an area of our lives in which we are in bondage. So what are the tactics that Satan uses to bring bondage to immoral behavior?
As I thought about this, it seems to me that the tactics are somewhat different for males and females because however much forces in our culture want to make us all equal and just alike in every respect, the fact is that there are great differences between males and females. We are different in the way that we're wired. So that when Satan wants to tempt a man, when he wants to put together a tactic to cause a man to come into bondage to immoral behavior, he seduces a man by his imagination.
That is his primary tactic and it works for men in particular. Men are seduced by their imagination. And the gate of temptation to a man is the eyes. We are wired so that what we see visually stimulates us. And the result of that is that Satan can use that gate to employ his tactic to bring us into bondage. I want this morning to deal in particular with pornography because it is so common in our culture and such a tremendous social problem. It has been called the victimless crime. What a joke.
Ask the women, the families, and the children who have been victimized by pornography and someone in their family, their father, their husband, whether it's a victimless crime. Estimates are that five million people in America are addicted to pornography. Not just that they casually look at it once in a while, but they're absolutely addicted to it as much as someone is addicted to cigarettes or to alcohol. Most of them, of course, are men.
In a backgrounder from the Minnesota Family Council, someone points out the four stages of compulsive behavior of addiction to pornography. These four stages each result in consequences that are increasingly serious as the addiction progresses. The first stage is addiction or compulsion. The second stage is when the habit is formed, usually soft porn, to use a term, is employed. And in this first stage, there is a bit of a snare that is wrapped around a person's will.
It is not easy to break, but it can be broken with some work and prayer. If it is not broken, the first stage leads to a second stage called escalation. Because pornography is such that it does not satisfy. It only creates a greater desire. And so there is a need for more explicit or risky or deviant material in order to find the same level of sexual excitement. If this addictive cycle is not broken in stage two, it will go on to stage three, which is desensitization.
Now, in this stage, what once was shocking becomes normal. And one begins to rationalize various kinds of perversions, to visit private booths in so-called adult bookstores, if there was ever a name that was inappropriate, it is that. The final stage in this cycle is that of acting out, where the fantasies now begin to be lived out and begins to victimize other people. You see, Jeffrey Dahmer's didn't begin by committing heinous acts of butchery and deviancy and cannibalism.
He began with the first stages of pornography, which became in his life a stronghold. And as I warned last week, strongholds invite demonic involvement and control. And I'm convinced that the only way that he could do what he did was through the influence and the direct control of demons. He by the way has made a profession of faith and has been baptized in his prison cell in Wisconsin. I hope it's genuine. But his life is ruined because of the stronghold that was established.
Ted Bundy did not start out with murder and sex crimes against women. Let me read to you his words in a letter to Dr. James Dobson. As a youth I encountered very mild forms of pornography outside the home, dumped along roadsides at friends' homes, on the magazine rack at the local drugstore, but nothing serious. My interest in it was no more intense than my peers'. I didn't commit or attempt to commit a crime of violence before I left home to go to college.
And I didn't fantasize about doing so either. But I can see now how I was vulnerable when I left home. Not only to the suggestions of pornography, but to depictions of violence in the media generally. Once on my own in the big city I began to indulge this predisposition in the numerous adult bookstores and theaters in Seattle. Intensely secret fantasy life evolved within me, fed, aroused, reinforced, and strengthened by the material I was exposed to in the bookstores primarily.
Now am I suggesting that those who become addicted to pornography inevitably will become Ted Bundy's or Jeffrey Dahmer's? No, I'm not saying that. But that is a possibility. What I am saying is that when you look down at the end of the road and you see men like that and you trace their steps back, it comes back to this problem that men have to fight with. That Satan uses a tactic against us to put us into bondage. He uses the gate that God gave us, our eyes.
He uses a drive that God has given us for our sexuality to bring us to evil. It is a very serious warfare for men. We are seduced by our imagination. But if men are seduced by the imagination, women are beguiled by their emotions. That's the tactic that Satan uses on women. The gate is words and touch.
How many times I have heard the story from both men and women who have been tempted or more than tempted in office situations where there was someone who was having a hard time in his marriage and he sought out some vulnerable female in the office to begin pouring his troubles out to. Even on his part at first it may have been innocent, but what he was failing to realize was that this woman that he is pouring his troubles out to is aroused, beguiled by her emotions.
She begins to feel sorry for this man. That sorrow turns into something more and more and more in time. Then there's just the reaching out of touching and holding the hand for a moment to reassure, to give strength. Then the holding of the hand lasts a little longer and you know the story. It is played out thousands of times every week across America. Why is it you think that the soap operas are predominantly watched by women?
It is because they are very emotional and play to this gait in a woman. The fact is that both men and women learn very quickly in life how to manipulate each other for what they want. These exploitations of God-given, the God-given gift of sexuality, these exploitations are tactics used by the enemy to bring bondage, to create strongholds in the life. Satan is very clever.
He has had thousands of years to study the human race and he has created a world atmosphere around us that leads us in the direction where he knows that we are already vulnerable. He is having a heyday in the 1990s and even in the Church of Jesus Christ. If those are the tactics of the enemy to bring us to bondage, then what might be some of the steps ordered by the Lord to bring us freedom? That is what I want to talk about now. To do that, I invite you to turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
Wow, what a chapter this is. I mean, it is down to earth. It is where the rubber meets the road. It is one of those chapters that deals with human sexuality and the importance in the place of marriage and God's orders around that. I am just going to look at the very beginning of the chapter this morning to talk about the steps ordered by the Lord to bring freedom from the stronghold of immoral behavior. He begins chapter 7 by saying, now concerning the things about which you wrote.
So Paul had received a letter from these people inquiring about certain things. So Paul is now beginning to answer the questions. The first one says, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. We have already talked about the gates of a woman to her emotions. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Does that mean that a man should never take a woman by the hand or by the arm to help her across the street or down the steps?
Or that there is never an appropriate occasion to hug someone of the opposite sex? No, he is not necessarily saying that. What he is saying is, it is not good for a man to touch a woman so as to create a situation of temptation. Here is the principle I believe that I want to write down as the first step that brings freedom. Number one, guard the areas of vulnerability. Guard the areas of vulnerability. That is what Paul is saying to them here. Be on guard.
He is not saying a male and female should never touch under any circumstances. He is saying that there is a vulnerability there that must be guarded. I want to expand on that very quickly. I invite you to keep your finger here, but turn to 1 Timothy 6. I am going to look at two verses in this chapter, verses 11 and 12. 1 Timothy 6, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith.
Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In these two verses, there are four imperatives which Paul gives to this young man, Timothy. I believe these imperatives outline for us how we can guard the areas of vulnerability in our lives. For sake of being able to remember them, each one is going to begin with an F. The first one is obvious. Flee. If you really want to guard your life, learn to flee.
Stay away from stimulating materials, situations, and people as much as possible. I told you last week about this friend of mine who with one particular person at his place of work felt that there was a window of attraction. The best thing in the world he can do is to stay as far away from her as he can. Not that she has anything in mind, or even that he does at this point, but the possibilities are there. The electricity is there, and what he needs to do is to flee.
I am talking to some men who are here this morning who need to flee from situations where temptation is very real to you. It may not even be in the mind of the other person at this point. Something has happened, but you know what I am talking about. The first thing that God tells us to do is to flee from those kinds of relationships, those kinds of situations, those kinds of materials that can lead us into sin. Number two, follow. Pursue these things, he says. Follow after these things.
He lists a number of positive qualities, righteousness, godliness, faith, and so on. What he is telling us here to do is to follow after a positive thought life. If you and I want to guard areas of vulnerability, whether we are men or women, we need to follow after a positive thought life. Philippians 4 verse 8, Paul tells us a screen that we should all put up in front of our minds and he says, think on these things. It's very difficult to stop thinking negative thoughts, isn't it?
It's very difficult to stop thinking tempting thoughts, but we can replace those thoughts with positive ones. Number three, fight. Fight the good fight of faith, he says. If you and I want to guard the areas of vulnerability in our lives, we must recognize our temptations and counter them. We must enter into the battle. Too often we are passive. We just allow these thoughts to come into our minds, these temptations to be aroused, and we don't aggressively resist them. That's my point.
If you and I want to guard our vulnerable areas, we must fight. We must recognize the temptation is real, that it attacks us, and fight back against it. Number four, fasten. He says, take hold of the eternal life. Fasten yourself to it. Attach yourself to it. Lay hold of it. Mine says this means to practically appropriate all the benefits, privileges, and responsibilities involved in the possession of eternal life.
What he's saying is that you and I need to lay hold of the truth about our spiritual inheritance in Jesus Christ, all that our life in Him involves. Lay hold of those things. Make them real. Appropriate them for ourselves. And in doing that, we will guard the areas of vulnerability. Someone has said, if you do not want the fruit of sin, stay out of the orchard. And that's what I'm talking about, is staying out of the orchard of temptation. Number two, going back to 1 Corinthians 7, verse two.
It's good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband. Here's the second step in order to bring freedom. Preserve yourself for that one that God may bring into your life. Now, Paul is not saying here that it is God's plan for every person to be married. He goes on in this chapter to talk about the gift of singleness, that there are some who are called to that.
It is a high and holy calling, a privileged calling. But generally, God does lead a man to a woman to be his wife and a woman to a man to be her husband. And notice he says, because of immoralities. Now there are other reasons why this is established as God's order in the world. We know that. We understand Genesis chapters one and two, that this is God's plan from the beginning. But Paul makes it clear that because of immoralities, we have to consider marriage.
If you want to bring freedom to your life, then remember to preserve yourself for that one that God may well bring into your life. And I recognize that I'm talking to some singles this morning, and I do want to exalt your life at this moment. But I also want to exhort you that if you do not have the gift of singleness, to pursue marriage. I didn't say marry the first one that comes down the path. Don't misunderstand me. But I'm saying pursue marriage. That's God's plan.
And if there are certain fears that you have, recognize those fears, deal with them, and then pursue marriage. If you don't have the gift of singleness from God, then it is God's plan for you to be married. God is not going to leave you in a situation where you are just totally vulnerable and burning with lust and desire. Preserve yourself for that one that He may bring to your life.
Then in verse 3, He goes on to say, let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. And He goes on to develop that. He says the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Principle number 3, the third step ordered by the Lord to bring freedom to our lives. Enjoy the intimacy of the marriage relationship as God has designed it.
You see, sex is not merely for the production of children. Did you know that? God intended sex to be, shall I say, recreational. Now I know that you're nervous because I'm talking about sex, but you can smile if you want. No one's going to think that you're weird or odd. The marriage intimacy is intended to keep creating anew the oneness of marriage. That's why I call it recreation, because in recreation we are recreating.
And that is the purpose in part of the sexual union in marriage, to keep recreating anew the oneness of marriage. And God's Word makes it clear that spouses have a responsibility to understand, appreciate, and to adjust to the sexual needs of the other. And I realize that there are extremes that can be out of bounds. I am not talking about those for the moment. I am talking about the normal sexual needs of the other person. Husbands, you need to learn how to love your wife.
You are not naturally endowed with that ability. Let's be honest about it. It is a matter of learning, and you need to get into school and learn. You need to understand what satisfies her. You need to understand how she is prepared. The Word of God is very clear about this. You have a responsibility to love your wife. And it pays dividends, by the way. And wives, learn what pleases your husband. Learn what pleases him. You do not naturally know what a man needs. You need to find out. Ask him.
And if he loves you, he will tell you. He needs to. He needs to be honest about his needs. Now why am I being so blunt about this? I'll tell you why. Because this is a huge area of stumbling in marriages, even in our church. If a husband and wife are defrauding one another in this area, they can actually set up their spouse for vulnerability to sexual temptation. Did you know that?
And if you don't love that wife of yours, as God has commanded you to love her, and tenderly care for her needs, and understand what it is that satisfies and pleases her emotionally, as well as in other areas, then you're playing a role to help set her up to be vulnerable. And wives, if you do not understand what it is that a man needs in this area, and seek to serve your husband in that way, then you are setting him up to be vulnerable to sexual temptation.
You may need to get some biological facts, frankly, to be informed. It is amazing to me how many people I've been married for years and do not even understand the biological facts. If you approach your marriage intimacy believing that it is dirty, you need to see a counselor. That is not right. Now that's not a put down. I'm just telling you the truth. That's not the way God planned it.
If you see it merely as a duty that has to be fulfilled every so often, then you need to seek some counsel to get help. God intends it to be so much more than that. If it is something that is unpleasant to you, you may need to go to a doctor. My point is that in this day of increasing immorality, you and I need to enjoy the intimacy of the marriage relationship as God has designed it. These are steps ordered by the Lord. These are steps ordered by the Lord. We need to help each other.
We need to support each other. And in so doing, see that there be no stronghold of immoral behavior that gets established in our lives or the lives of others that we influence. The Irish playwright Oscar Wilde said, I can resist everything but temptation. Can you identify with that? Let's be honest about it. Moral purity is a constant battle in this culture in which we live. None of us is invincible. Frankly, if like me, you live half scared of what you are capable of doing, it's not all bad.
We need to be scared of sin. Overconfidence and smugness is the first sign that one is in real trouble. Now some of us gathered right here this morning, and God knows and you know, some of us have allowed immoral behavior to become established and ensconced in our lives. And it is of course to you that I am most directly appealing today, though all of us can learn from what I've talked about.
But it is especially to you that I am appealing that you not allow this stronghold to remain unchallenged. There is forgiveness with God. You need to know that first of all. Sexual sin is not the unforgivable sin. Do you understand that? If you have already been involved in that and there is this stronghold that is eating you up with guilt and shame, know that there is forgiveness with God. There is cleansing through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that doesn't mean that He's going to automatically remove all the consequences of that sin, but God will be with you in it. But it is when we are living that way and we allow that behavior and those thoughts to be unchallenged that we are in deep trouble. It's disobedience to God's law. It denies Christ's work in our lives. It defiles the Holy Spirit's temple. It disgraces our witness. It draws demonic involvement.
There is no reason to allow these spiritual strongholds like immoral behavior to remain. I'm not going to tell you that the battle is easy. It's not. The stronghold that is now erected may come down with only great effort, but it will come down if you uncover the lies that you now believe and discover what is true. If you choose to act upon that truth and begin wielding your spiritual weapons, that stronghold by God's power will come down. Don't be ashamed to get assistance in the battle.
Look out for a trusted counselor or friend who will be able to stand with you and support you and encourage you. Keep in mind that when you and I are ready to confess our sins and begin the battle, God is right there ready to forgive and renew our strength for that battle. I hope that's where you're at this morning. This last week I had to make an emergency trip to Kansas to my home. While I was there I was walking on the old home place, which is getting older all the time as I stay the same.
There was this tree that I used to climb in as a kid that is not there anymore. Last year in some horrific storm it blew over and landed on the chicken house. Didn't completely destroy it, but the damage is still there. This tree was huge. It had to be this big around at its base. I couldn't put my arms, long as they are, halfway around this tree. It has stood there since my great-grandmother lived on that farm, but it's gone.
And the reason that it's gone is that inside that huge tree there was a disease at work. There was rottenness in its heart. It stood there for years like nothing was wrong when inside it was being eaten away. And one day when the storm came, the tree fell. I think you see the analogy, don't you? You can't afford to allow a stronghold to remain unchallenged in your life. You've got to go after it. And today is the day to begin. Let's pray.
Well my friend, if you didn't begin last week for some reason, here's another opportunity today to cry out to God, first of all for salvation if you're not a Christian. To ask Him to forgive your sins, to come into your life, to begin working to make you the kind of person that He wants you to be. God delights to answer that prayer, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
All of the guilt and shame of your past can be washed away if you will kneel at the cross and receive the Savior. Will you do that this morning? Trusting Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins because He died for you. Receiving Him alone as the Lord of your life. But it's very possible for one to have done that at some point earlier in life and to be faced today as a Christian with a stronghold that denies who you really are. And that is not God's plan.
That's why He tells us of our spiritual weapons and of spiritual warfare, if there is a stronghold of immoral behavior in your life, let me guarantee you it will cause disintegration. And someday, oh it may be secret now, no one may know, but if you don't attack that stronghold someday, like that tree, you're going to fall. And so today will you attack the stronghold? Will you choose to begin acting upon the truth that you know and wield your spiritual weapons?
Just tell God right now, yes I will Lord. And I want to encourage you to seek a trusted counselor or friend. Don't be alone in your battle. That isn't God's plan. You need not be ashamed. We are all made of the same stuff. Go to someone you know you can trust and reach out and then join the battle together. Oh Lord I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you will begin breaking down the strongholds of sin that have been established.
That you will work in our hearts to enjoin the battle and to begin attacking with spiritual weapons those strongholds that must be destroyed before they destroy us. There may be some who are experiencing strongholds far from what we've talked about today, but oh God whatever it be, may we charge in the name of the Lord this day and stay in the battle until the victory comes. I know that there are some here this morning who are discouraged, encouraged their hearts.
May they begin afresh today, not in their own strength, but in your strength and experience more progress and advance in their lives. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for the liberty that he has died for us to live in. May we experience it as fully as you want us to. And now let's stand together please with our heads bowed. Now Lord Jesus Christ we commit ourselves to you as your soldiers.
Arm us we pray and teach us to use that armor and our weapons that we may experience victory over the evil one, over the world and over the flesh in our warfare this week and then return the praise and the honor and the glory to your great and liberating name. Amen.