How is it that many find themselves hopelessly bound in their sin when there is a God of tremendous hope offering them the keys to genuine freedom? We’ll help answer that in our next two episodes. Today’s focus is on the common barriers to overcoming sexual sin and the ways these often produce hopelessness in a sex addict’s life. This interview is part of our new and ongoing Ask the Counselor series, where we interview various members of our counseling staff about some of the common questions asked by those in sexual sin.

Resources

• You Have Every Reason to Hope (Sermon) by Steve Gallagher

Since time immemorial the devil has used discouragement to weaken believers’ defenses against the temptation to sin. Discouragement—which can befall the godliest of saints—can easily lead to self-pity. Once a person begins to feel sorry for himself, he becomes easy prey for the enemy. The lives of Asaph and Cain demonstrate two different and opposite ways to respond when things go wrong.

Asaph: An Outward Focus

Asaph, a Levite, was appointed as worship leader by King David because of his great love for God and his ability to lead others into His presence. And yet, Psalm 73 recounts the story of how he became discouraged one day and nearly got himself into real spiritual trouble. “My feet came close to stumbling,” he later confessed, “my steps had almost slipped.” Asaph almost slid into a pit of depression and despair when he began to focus on “the prosperity of the wicked.”

“They are not in trouble as other men,” he lamented to himself, “nor are they plagued like mankind.” Asaph could not reconcile the fact that “the wicked” seemed to be blessed, while he seemed to have nothing but troubles. “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence; for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning.”

Asaph’s discouragement nearly set his feet on the slippery path of self-pity. With his attention focused on the prosperity of the wicked, he began to question the goodness of God. One more precarious step in this direction could have been disastrous, but Asaph was a man who knew his God. “When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God…”

Many years later, the prophet Habakkuk would struggle with the very same question. Ultimately, he too found the way out of discouragement by fixing his eyes on the Lord. “Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines,” he wrote, “yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” (3:17-18)

Godly people discover that the way out of the discouragements of life is always by focusing their minds back on “the beauty of the Lord.” They understand that this world belongs to the enemy; that they were created for another world. Thus, rather than turning inward to self, they turn to the Lord in the midst of discouragement. Asaph’s entire perspective brightened when he got his eyes off himself and onto the Lord. “Whom have I in heaven but You?” he exclaimed. “And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Asaph’s and Habakkuk’s responses contrast strikingly with that of Cain. He, too, faced a difficult situation, but rather than respond in the right way, he became increasingly embittered over God’s dealings with him.

Cain: An Inward Focus

Cain was clearly a religious man, evidenced by the fact that he willingly arrived at the appointed time with an offering. Unquestionably, his sacrificial gift came at a very real and personal cost. Nevertheless, the Lord rejected his offering for one very important reason: Cain’s religious life was not founded upon faith, submission and love to the Lord, but in self-works.

“The way of Cain,” as Jude later coined it, denotes the underlying attitude of entitlement—that each act of sacrifice is a great gift to God deserving recognition and praise. There are many in the Church today who exhibit this self-centered agenda. When God withholds His blessing, or allows suffering of any kind into their lives, they start feeling sorry for themselves. “Look at all I have given up for the Lord,” they trumpet indignantly. “I go to church every Wednesday and twice on Sunday. I’ve paid my tithes for many years. And this is the thanks I get?!” Rather than seeing all that God has done for them, all they can see is what they have done for Him. Blinded by self-righteousness and self-pity, they view themselves as His benefactors, instead of sinful wretches unworthy of grace and mercy.

God, in His infinite holiness, must reject, and always has rejected, such self-centered religion. When He refused to accept Cain’s offering, we are told that Cain “became very angry and his countenance fell.” In other words, he plummeted into a depression. He sat down in a heap of self-pity and sulked—the first biblical instance of someone throwing a temper tantrum.

Cain’s attitude can be summed up in the distressing words of the unprofitable servant (in the parable of the talents): “I knew you to be a hard taskmaster.” And so God always seems to those who live in self-will. They fully expect Him to bless their plans and when He doesn’t—or when things go wrong—they rise up in anger with Him. He seems like a “hard taskmaster,” a demanding boss who cannot be satisfied. This attitude, if persisted in, leads to self-pity, which in turn, paves the way for deeper, more grievous sins.

God: Another Chance

The Lord saw that Cain was in great spiritual danger. In spite of the blasphemous accusations churning in Cain’s heart, the Lord graciously reached out to him. “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?” At that point, Cain’s situation was still comparable to those of Asaph and Habakkuk. Had he responded with the same faith, obedience and humility they exhibited, he, like them, would have climbed right out of his pit of despair.

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The Lord then proceeded to show Cain exactly what to do, reinforcing His instruction with a warning of the danger he was in: “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Simply put, God was giving Cain a chance to repent of his attitude. If he continued in prideful self-will, he would be powerless to resist the provocations toward evil of the enemy lurking nearby. Cain, regrettably, chose to remain locked in a prison of SELF, nursing his “grievances.” Self-pity turned to anger, which quickly gave place to rage. And rage, pursued to its end, led to murder.

The temptation Cain faced, and ultimately succumbed to, was toward violence. However, I have heard countless stories from men who found themselves unable to resist sexual temptations once they began feeling sorry for themselves. Self-pity distances a person from the Lord and increases his vulnerability to the enemy’s lures. Once a person throws a pity party, he will find that he has very little strength to withstand temptation.

The next time you find yourself discouraged over some difficult situation, turn to the Lord. You will find that as you “set your mind on things above,” you will be lifted right out of the doldrums! On the other hand, if you start giving over to self-pity, beware that “sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you.”

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When Jesus came in the first century, what He found caused Him to fashion a whip to cleanse the temple and led Him to pronounce woe on the religious leaders. We know that He is coming again—perhaps soon—but the question remains, “What will He find?” What will it take to be part of the faithful remnant who continue pressing on, clinging to God’s Word, and living in daily anticipation of His coming? We must prepare our hearts now!

Resources

• Find out more about our 22nd Annual Conference

For anyone who has truly found a new life in Christ, there will be a severe fight against their old nature. But it’s easy to overlook some of the enemies that one will face in that battle. One of those often-unnoticed opponents is pride, and yet overcoming it is closely linked with living a pure life. In this episode we talk about the struggle for humility and why it is so important to never give up in that fight.

Here at Pure Life Ministries we deal with men who are seeking freedom from bondage to sexual sin. This means that, for most of our men, while confessing Christ as Savior and Lord, they have been giving over to some besetting sins for years. Many are wondering, when they come to us, if there is any hope for them. They have failed far more than they have succeeded, and have left a trail of repeated lies, devastated spouses, broken relationships, and ruined ministries in their wake. The reasons for their constant failures are addressed elsewhere in this blog. This article is about something else entirely. A great many of the men who come to us, bound in sexual sin, want to know, “Have I committed the unpardonable sin?” They want to know if they are beyond hope. A recent, rather unscientific poll of our residents (a show of hands) revealed that an overwhelming majority of our men have struggled with the issue.

So, have they? Have you? Have you committed the ‘unpardonable sin?’ Are you beyond redemption? Have you committed apostasy? Can you be restored to repentance? Let’s look at the Scripture.

What is the Unforgivable Sin?

The first relevant passage is Mark 3:28-29, and the parallel in Matthew 12:31-32:

“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” Mark 3:28-30

“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Matthew 12:31-32

Let’s take care of the technical matters first. The words “blasphemy” (the noun) and “to blaspheme” (the verb) are transliterated directly into English from the Greek words blasphemia and blasphemeo. The verb means “to speak reproachfully, to slander, to insult, to rail, to revile, to defame.” The issue, however, is more than just the insults that pour forth from one’s mouth. The issue is that “the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart” (Matthew 15:18), and the person speaking truly believes the terrible things they are saying.

So let’s look at the context in Mark 3 (and Matthew 12). Jesus was ministering in a house that was crowded with people. Visiting teachers of the law, having come down from Jerusalem, were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” That was the blasphemous insult. More than words, they actually believed that Jesus was possessed and acting in the power of Satan. In response to their intentional slander, Jesus first showed them that their claim was ridiculous (“How can Satan drive out Satan?”), and then severely warned them about speaking reproachfully against the Holy Spirit. Mark concludes, “He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

In the parallel passage in Matthew 12, it is clear that Jesus had just healed a man who was possessed of a demon. In response, some were saying aloud that He could possibly be the Messiah (the Son of David). But when the Pharisees heard this, they responded with their rebuttal, that, “it is by the prince of demons that He cast out demons!” We hear Jesus say, “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” It is as if Jesus were saying, “Say what you will about me, but don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit!” Blaspheming Jesus can be forgiven. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. But remember, the problem is not just the words that come from the mouth, but the evil attitudes of anger, hatred and utter rejection that lie in the heart.

Why is it so dangerous to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? The reason is simple. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to witness to the truth. It is the work of the Spirit to convict one of sin, and to convince one of their need for the cleansing blood of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell within when one surrenders in faith to the Lord Jesus. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, salvation for the sinner is simply impossible.

One can say and even mean horrible things about Jesus, and yet, in time, still be saved by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. No doubt Saul of Tarsus said many blasphemous things about Jesus before he was confronted by the risen Christ on the Damascus Road. But if one constantly and consistently resists the work of the Holy Spirit, refusing His conviction, rejecting His leading, and resisting His pleading – then there is nothing He can do, in this life or in the next. That is what makes the sin unpardonable. It takes an openness to the Spirit to come to Jesus for pardon. Reject the work of the Spirit, and pardon is not available.

Are you Beyond Redemption?

Now, let’s go back to the situation here at PLM, and in the local church. Men who are bound by habitual sin and have not yet found freedom want to know, “Have I sinned beyond redemption?” Have I committed the unpardonable sin?” Yet the truth of it is that they are at a Christian ministry desperately seeking help from God! It was at the leadership of the Holy Spirit that they arrived here in the first place! He has brought them here because He is nowhere near finished with their lives and intends to discipline them, deliver them, and deploy them to future ministry. Far from repudiating the work of the Spirit, they are desperately seeking His help in their lives. An unpardonable sin has not been committed, or they would never be seeking God for freedom from their sin.

The question is sometimes posed from a different perspective. The student believes that they are beyond redemption because they have “once been enlightened and have fallen away.” (Hebrews 6:4-6) They believe that they are guilty of “sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, so now there no longer remains a sacrifice for their sins.” (Hebrews 10:26) They believe they have committed apostasy.

The writer to the Hebrews was addressing the Jewish believers in Christ who had remained in and around Jerusalem, who, under the intense pressure and severe persecution of their surrounding culture, were in danger of forsaking Christ and returning to the religion of Judaism. His letter is interspersed with encouragement to remain faithful and dire warnings about the results of rejecting Christ.

Allow me to paint a picture for you. Let’s go back to Jerusalem, to that last Passover week that is recorded for us in the Gospels. Jesus rode into the city being cheered by the crowds as He proclaimed Himself to be Messiah and king. He was, of course, rejected by the leaders of the Jews, the chief priests and the ruling Sanhedrin, as an imposter and an insurrectionist, a treasonous troublemaker who was a danger to Rome. He was found guilty of blasphemy by the Jews, for claiming to be the Son of God (which He was). He was found innocent by the Romans, yet sentenced to die for being the king of the Jews (which He was also). The Jews and the Romans rejected both of these claims, and so found reason to put Him to death.

Now, in that context, for a Jewish believer to reject Jesus as the Messiah, was, in fact, siding with those who had put Him to death. They were saying that Jesus was a liar, a fraud, a blasphemer, and that He was not the Son of God They were saying that His death sentence was just and that He got exactly what He deserved. They were also saying that He had not been raised from the dead, and that the Good News preached by the apostles was all a lie. That is what it meant to commit apostasy.

So, have you committed apostasy? Have you professed for all to hear, and do you firmly believe that Jesus is a fake and a fraud, that He is not God’s Son, that His bones lie as dust in a grave somewhere? Having once professed Christ, do you now affirm that He was not the Messiah, that He deserved to die on that cross, and that He got what was coming to Him? Having once believed and professed your faith, have you now totally rejected Him and spurned His grace? If you have, then you are lost, pure and simple.

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But my guess is, if you’re reading this article, that you have not committed apostasy. Neither have you blasphemed the Holy Spirit. My guess is, if you have found this blog, you are desperate to make sure that there is still some measure of hope for you. Let me assure you that there is. The Savior, Whom you worry you have offended beyond relief, may well be offended by your sin, yet He still waits to forgive, heal and restore you completely. You are not beyond help and you are certainly not beyond hope.

What remains for you is to repent and come back to the Lord. Just because you have not yet committed apostasy (repudiated the Faith) or blasphemed the Holy Spirit (completely rejected His influence), that does not mean that you are not in danger of doing so. The longer you stay in your sin, the farther you’ll wander from his Presence. The farther away from Him you go, the more likely the possibility (even probability) that you’ll never return. The time to turn back is now.

Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7

The men who come to Pure Life Ministries for help worry about their salvation and their standing with God. They worry that they are beyond hope because they have not yet found freedom from their besetting sins. They need a great deal of help. They need discipline, maturity, grace, and humility. They need a safe environment where they can seriously seek the Lord. The need to read the Word, hear the Gospel, and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. They need the total dismantling of their self-life. They need repentance, repentance, and more repentance. Some need salvation. All need the Lord Jesus. And they find Him here. They find His mercy and forgiveness. They find in Him new life, a pure life. And they find hope. There is not a sin they’ve committed that He will not abundantly pardon.

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For anyone who has truly found a new life in Christ, there will be a severe fight against their old nature. But it’s easy to overlook some of the enemies that one will face in that battle. One of those often-unnoticed opponents is pride, and yet overcoming it is closely linked with living a pure life. In this episode we talk about the struggle for humility and why it is so important to never give up in that fight.

Resources

• Exposing the Heart of a Humble Man (Short Video) by Ed Buch
• I: The Root of Sin Exposed (Book) by Steve Gallagher

There are at least 54 specific references to repentance in the New Testament, in addition to the 16 in the Old Testament. John the Baptist came preaching repentance, and offered a baptism that symbolized repentance. (Mark 1:4; Acts 13:24) Jesus also came preaching repentance (Mark 1:15), and repentance was the theme of the preaching in the early Church (Acts 2:38; 5:31). It would stand to reason then, that repentance should be a regular practice in the life of every Christian. And yet, it seems that repentance is seldom preached in the Church any more, and that many Christians have only a vague idea what repentance is all about.

What Repentance Isn’t

First, let me tell you what repentance is not. It is not just feeling sorry for your sin. That is certainly part of it, but it is so much more than that. The Bible talks about the importance of having a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17; Isaiah 57:15), but repentance is more than feeling sorrow. Paul describes the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. (2 Corinthians 7:10) Worldly sorrow is selfish and self-centered. Worldly sorrow is sorrow that you got caught, sorrow that your sin has cost you something, sorrow that you have to pay the consequences. Worldly sorrow, Paul said, leads only to death. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, is not selfish at all. It is sorrow that your sin has offended God. It is sorrow that your sin has hurt others. It is sorrow that causes you to hate the sin itself, and to desire with all your heart to turn from it and be cleansed of it. Godly sorrow, Paul said, produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.

What Repentance Is

Now, let’s define what repentance is. Repentance is a gift from God that changes your heart, allowing you to turn from your sin and turn back to God. That repentance is a gift from God is evident from Acts 5:31, when Peter said, “God exalted [Jesus] at His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. The word used here means “to give” and “to give freely as a gift.” We are also told in Acts 11:18, "When they heard these things they … glorified God, saying, 'Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.'” So twice in the book of Acts we are told that repentance is a gift given by God.

The immediate implication of this is clear. If repentance is a gift given by God, then it is something we can ask for. God is not stingy, and wants us to have all the gifts that He has for us. Surely repentance is a gift He wants us to have. We can be encouraged to pray and ask God to “grant [us] repentance that leads to life.”

Next, let’s look at the word itself. There are two words in the Bible that are translated as repentance, the Hebrew word from the Old Testament and the Greek word from the New. The Hebrew word is shuv (pronounced shoove), and it means to turn, to turn around, and to return. It is a great picture: Your life is headed in a certain direction (away from God); you stop, turn around, and head back in the opposite direction (towards God). So the action-oriented Hebrew saw repentance as a complete reversal of life.

The Greek word for repentance is metanoia, and literally means “to change the mind.” This is a picture of a person who thinks one way, and so lives according to that way of thinking; then he changes his mind, with the direct result that his whole life changes as well. Repentance is more than a slight shift in attitude. It is radical life change.

Jesus gave us a picture of repentance in His parable of the prodigal son. The younger son had a selfish and sinful attitude toward his father, his family and his future. He left his father and went off to waste his inheritance in riotous living. Then, when hard times came, he ended up, as all sinners do, isolated, impoverished and unsatisfied. Jesus tells us that at last the young man “came to himself.” He had a change of heart. He realized the sad state of his life, that he had sinned against God and his father. So he resolved to return home to his father. And then he actually did it. He returned, confessing his sin, humbled, and willing to serve.

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What Repentance Looks Like

It should be clear by now that repentance issues in radical life change. There is always a difference that you and others can see. John the Baptist was heard to demand, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance!” (Matthew 3:8) He was saying, “Demonstrate by your new behavior that you have truly changed your heart and your life.” The point is that one can pray and ask to be forgiven for their sins, but before long be right back asking for forgiveness for those same sins all over again. There has been no change. There has not been a rejection and a forsaking of the sin; there is no hatred of the sin that causes one to repudiate it. There is no awareness of what that sin does to God, nor of the price Jesus paid for its forgiveness. Neither is there any awareness of what the continuation of that sin is doing to the heart, conscience and life of the sinner, nor the impact of that sin upon others. Real repentance is a thorough work of rooting sin out, and not a shallow, haphazard and half-hearted attempt to gain absolution so that one can simply repeat the same cycle all over again. Repentance bears fruit. It brings a change that can be seen.

How to Repent

There is no clear “formula” for repentance described in Scripture, but we do see pictures of it throughout the Bible. Repentance is clearly demonstrated in David’s life in Psalm 51. We can begin by asking God to give us the gift of repentance. Go before Him in prayer and seek His mind about the nature of your sin. Ask Him to show you the depth of it, and how you sin hurts His heart. (Psalm 51:3) Allow Him to take you to the Cross, and see the price He was willing to pay in the blood of His Son to purchase your forgiveness, so that you no longer take that for granted. Don’t rush through this. Allow the repentance to be deep and thorough.

Realize that all sin is first against Him. You may indeed have sinned against others, but all sin is against the holiness of God. When David was confronted by the prophet concerning his sin, he exclaimed, “I have sinned against the Lord!” (2 Samuel 12:13) and in his hymn of contrition he sang “Against You, You only have I sinned!” (Psalm 51:4) Confess the actual sin(s) to the Lord. Be specific as you name them. The word “confess” means to “say together” and, therefore, “to agree,” so you are agreeing with God that your attitudes and actions are sinful. You are confessing that He is right in His estimation of your sin and that you have been wrong. (Psalm 51:4b) Ask God to fill you with a hatred and a revulsion for the sin you now cherish. (Job 42:5-6) All of this can be done before God in prayer.

Now you have to bear the fruit. You have changed your mind (Psalm 51:6, 10) and now you have to change your behavior. In many ways, real heart change will naturally issue in changed behavior. However, when you are tempted to act in the same sinful ways again - and you will be tempted - you must resist the temptation and forsake the sin. (2 Chronicles 7:14) God has promised that for every temptation, there will always be provided a way of escape. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Real repentance always leads to obedience. Forsake your pride, and in utter humility, surrender to God and to the doing of His will. (James 4:7-10; 1 Peter 5:6) Finally, thank God for His forgiveness, and for the strength not to sin against Him again. (Psalm 51:12)

One final word. Repentance is often seen as part of that act of surrender in faith when a sinner first comes to Christ for salvation – and it is. There can be no forgiveness without confession and repentance from sin. But this is much more than a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that becomes a vital part of every sincere and maturing Christian’s life. Repentance is part of sanctification, of God continually conforming us to the image of His Son. (Romans 8:29) As often as the Holy Spirit convicts us and reveals the presence of any sin in our lives, we are to respond in repentance. Remember, God gave us repentance to lead us to life. (Acts 11:18)

Dennis came to the Pure Life Residential Program because his life was full of sin. But over his nine-month stay, God changed him completely. Listen as he shares how God transformed him from a man of anger and ingratitude to one full of praise, who lives to help meet the needs of others. (From Podcast Episode #453 - |Victory| 95% of Mercy is Prayer)

Dennis: In the Bible names have special meanings. My name has a special meaning. If you spell it backwards, it is spells “sinned.” A good description of my life before PLM could be summed up in the words, “Dennis sinned.” Just as Jesus wept over the physical death of His friend, Lazarus, Jesus wept over my choice of death instead of life. He wept for every person I hurt and He wept for every person who shed tears while praying for my salvation. I caused a lot of people to cry. My sexual sins were only a part of how I hurt others. I hurt people by making fun of them. I hurt people by acting morally superior to them. I hurt people by seeking glory for myself, rather than seeking to glorify God through my life. Yes, it was my sexual sin that brought me to PLM, but the deeper sins of rebellion, selfishness, and worshiping myself instead of God were His greatest concerns when I came to the PLM Residential Program.
God began to break me down when I came here. He began to show me what it meant to weep, as others had, over my sin. He used some painful revelations to reveal my true heart. One revelation I had was that when God said to acknowledge Him in all my ways, He wasn't just talking about running my future plans and decisions past Him. He was also talking about admitting to my sin and getting it out in the open so that He could deal with it.
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A second revelation was given to me during the first campus-wide talk fast. I had a horrible day and desperately wanted someone to help me wallow in self-pity, but upon returning from work I saw that a talk fast had been posted. I had no one to listen to my terrible woes. After suffering for a couple of hours, a quiet voice spoke into my head and heart, “Now you know how your wife feels.” How many times had I come home, after talking to my coworkers all day, and my wife Naomi would want to talk to me. I would tell her that I was too tired and that I needed to relax and recover from my hard day at work. I was treating her as if raising three girls took no effort at all. God showed me my lack of mercy and Naomi's unending mercy.
While everyone in the church thought I was the gifted, spiritually mature Christian; it was my wife who was the faithful one. She was the one who displayed the true servant’s heart and always put the needs of others before her own.  As I continued through the Residential Program, I came to realize that I didn't love people. I didn't know how to pray mercifully for them, and I didn't know how to persevere in prayer. Through my clashes with other students, God taught me that praying mercifully for others was more about changing my heart than changing theirs. At work, He showed me I didn't have to defend myself or make excuses for my mistakes. I only needed to take responsibility for my part and let Him defend me if I was being treated unfairly.
My name is no longer, “Dennis sinned,” in God’s eyes. He now sees me as, “Dennis surrendered.” He can finally allow His mercy to flow steadily into my life and out of my life to others. I no longer want glory for myself, but instead agree with the words of the hymn that says, “To God be the glory, great things He has done.” Thank you, Jesus. You are my first love.

Pastor Steve preached a sermon to the men in our residential program in 2019 titled "Consider Jesus". In it, he challenged them to consider all that Jesus has done, and the radiance of His glory and how great a salvation He has bestowed upon us. In this episode, we play that sermon. We hope that it richly blesses you and points you to the tremendous hope you have in Jesus Christ.

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Resources

• The Life of Christ (Teaching Series) by Steve Gallagher
• You can also listen to The Life of Christ series as well as other sermons and our weekly podcast on our Pure Life Ministries smart phone app. Downloadable on the App Store and the Google Play Store.

In this interview with Pastor Steve Gallagher, we look at what marks the life of a worldly Christian and what distinguishes a life truly consecrated and full of the Holy Spirit. (from Podcast Episode #451 - |Victory| A Life and a Soul Surrendered)

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Nate: So Pastor Steve, throughout our Victory series, we explained that victory comes when we do God's will, which is mercy. We need to allow His love to dwell in our hearts and then go out toward other people. To do this requires that a man be willing to consecrate his will to the will of God. Can you explain a little bit about what it means to consecrate your life to God?

Pastor Steve: It boils down to exchanging my will for God's will. In the simplest terms, that's what it means. In daily life it’s hard for me to come up with examples. But I think you have to examine what fills up your time, whether it’s watching tv or golfing every weekend. You have to take those things to the Lord and ask Him if He is okay with those things being a part of your life. You have to earnestly take it to him. It can't just be a flippant, cheap, quick prayer. It needs to be something that is ongoing. When you do that, He will lead you.
He will do it usually through a feeling or a sense about a certain thing. He will either make you not feel right about it anymore, or He will give you a green light and you will be able to go out and really enjoy yourself and know that you're pleasing God in the midst of it. It works itself out that way. But beyond any of that, it really comes down to a consecration of your will. You need to get down before God in a very determined, intentional way, and you say “God, from now on, I am going to obey your will.” You need to tell Him you are going to seek out His will for everything in your life and determine to obey it and not just live your life the way you want.

Nate: One of the things that you said in one of the books you wrote is, “Until we come to the place of consecration where we abandon our wills and rights to God, we'll never really know what it means to be full of the Spirit.” Why did you say that?

Pastor Steve: You can't be full of the Spirit and be the king of your own life, it doesn't work that way. I'm going to beat up on some Pentecostals out there for a minute, although I am one. There are millions of Pentecostals out there who speak in tongues and think they're full of the Spirit. Yet Monday through Saturday they are totally in self-will. Those kinds of people are in delusion and are not full of the Spirit just because they speak in tongues.
They are full of the Spirit when God is living out the life of Christ through their lives and when the fruit of the Spirit is being exhibited and manifested in their daily life. That's what it means to be full of the Spirit. You can go out and do a few nice things for people, but that's not the same as Jesus Christ living His life of love and mercy towards others through you. When you feel Him doing that through you, it is such a tremendous thing.

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Nate: So, let's talk about somebody who has truly repented of sexual sin. They really have told themselves inside “I am wrong, I know how I’ve been living is wrong. I believe I have experienced true brokenness.” Now they want to consecrate their life to God and to live out His love towards others. You already touched on this a little bit, but could you expound on that?

Pastor Steve: As far as I have seen, the majority of American Christians think of the Christian life in these terms: “I got saved, now I go to church, and one day I’m going to go to Heaven. They believe that it is as simple as that. But when you look at what the Word of God says, it sounds a little different. For instance, Christians love Ephesians 2:8-9,
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
You hear that over and over in sermons, books, and on radio shows. Those are the kinds of scriptures they focus on. That may be one of the most quoted verses in Scripture, but it goes on in the following verses to say,
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
You're not saved just so you can feel like you have the assurance of going to Heaven one day. I'm not even sure if someone who thinks that way is saved at all. God is saving you by bringing you into a new life. It's a life that involves walking away from self-will, from sin, and it's a life that involves walking into a place where God is going to use you. Paul is saying that you were created as a new creature in Christ for a specific purpose.
It reminds me of Romans 10:9, where there is another verse that we hear all the time,
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
You hear that all the time, but usually when this passage is quoted you don't hear what verse ten says,  
For with the heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness.
You do not have one without the other. You do not receive justification without sanctification, and you do not receive salvation without a life of good works that follow.
I believe very strongly that every single true believer has a specific call on his or her life. An  area of mercy and need that God wants them to focus on. The Lord will open doors up if you will seek Him with all your heart to find out exactly what His will is. He's got a plan and it's not the cheap kind of cliche you hear from people who say “God's got a plan for your life.” He does have a plan for your life, but it entails a life of sacrifice and giving yourself away to fulfill the needs of others.

Nate: Yea, I think that really tests our consecration and our devotion. How many people want to get rid of sexual sin just because it's like this horrible scourge in their life. They want to be rid of all the consequences, the pain and the misery that follow sexual sin. When people have that kind of attitude, it doesn’t evoke a great response. On the other hand, there are some people reading who really want to surrender to Christ but are scared to say the words. They are either afraid of what surrender will really look like, or they're aware of their own weaknesses. They may have thoughts like, “Look at my track record. Look at how many promises I've made to God and not kept.” So, if a person is asking themselves, how can I know that I will really live this decision out? What would you say to them?

Pastor Steve: I would say that it is very common, typical and even normal for someone who has been addicted to sin to question whether anything is going to be different in their life when they try to change. There must be some kind of a breakthrough spiritually inside the person or they will not have any evidence they can point to where God began to change them. But if there has been a breakthrough, then they have every reason to believe because Scripture shows that when that happens things are going to be very different. When God is living inside of you that is a whole new ball game. It’s no longer just trying to white knuckle through temptations. Now you've got the Holy Spirit living in you who's going to help you say no. It’s a process of growing into freedom and a victorious life. You have your failures for awhile, but then you come into a full life in the Lord.
As far as the fear of surrender to the Lord, what is there to be afraid of? Afraid of a life of joy instead of the misery of a self-focused life? Afraid of a life of freedom instead of bondage? Afraid of a life of peace instead of the constant anxiety associated with self-will? Afraid of a life of fulfillment instead of meaninglessness? Afraid of people's gratitude? Afraid of hearing one day, well done my good and faithful servant? What is there to be afraid of?
I've lived a life of real consecration since about 1985, so I've got a few years under my belt and I can tell you, I have never regretted throwing myself in complete abandonment into God's hands and saying, “Lord do with me what you will.” Still, I’ve had times of suffering. I had a lot of opposition when raising this ministry up and even persecution in some ways. But how do I compare that to the life I would have had? There is no comparison. I've had a fulfilling, meaningful tremendous life and not because of Pure Life. It’s come through what I've developed between me and the Lord. All I can say is there is nothing to be afraid of. If you're experiencing fear inside, it's the enemy who's planting those thoughts and creating negative scenarios in your mind. That does not come from the Lord.  My advice is to throw yourself into God's hands and watch what He will do.

Nate: Amen. I get a lot of comfort from looking at the disciples, because they really did try to follow Him even though they had obvious failures in their walk with God. Jesus still said to them, “Fear not little flock, it's my Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” And then He gave them the Holy Spirit to empower them to live that life. We're not on our own in this surrender.

Pastor Steve: And that's when the change happened at Pentecost.  Before the Holy Spirit came, they were always questioning everything, arguing, or trying to be first and just doing everything wrong. After Pentecost, everything changed and it's the same for us.

How is it possible that something so wicked as pornography has become so commonplace within the Church?

Television. Internet. Social media. Video games. Pornography. They have all become mainstays of our culture and have had a dramatic impact on the spiritual condition of the American Church. They also represent a lifestyle that is becoming increasingly self-focused, self-indulgent and self-deceived.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is considered by many to be the father of modern hedonism. Bentham promoted the philosophy that pleasure is the highest good and ultimate purpose of life—and the converse, that pain should be avoided at all cost. Interestingly, he was also a strong advocate for animal rights, the freedom of expression, the right to divorce, the abolition of punishment (including that of children) and the decriminalization of homosexuality. In short, much of the liberal agenda of our day can be traced back to his hedonistic philosophy of living to please oneself.

For the most part, the Evangelical Church has withstood the pressure to adopt his secondary pet philosophies. If we’re honest with ourselves, however, we would admit that when it comes to the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of suffering, there’s not much difference between believers and unbelievers. The typical evangelical will avoid blatant sins that would identify him with the unsaved, such as drinking and drugging, but the lust for the things of the world thrives within his heart just as heartily.

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Bentham’s hedonistic way of life has become more prevalent with each new generation. For instance, the subject of conversation in a youth group today is more likely to revolve around “The Game of Thrones” or the Kardashians than any meaningful discussion of the things of God. And it is far more likely that selfies and Facebook postings will be shared than Bible verses.

How is all of this possible? It happens because it is effortless to indulge one’s natural desires. This can be seen in three facets of the human psyche.

1. Lust

The love of pleasure is not a new concept. First Century Epicureans advocated Bentham’s philosophy long before he arrived on the scene.

The Christian leaders of that time saw the hedonism of the Greek culture as a great threat to the Body of Christ. Nearly every book of the New Testament contains warnings about indulging the “lusts of the flesh.” The Greek term they employed (epithumia) often refers to sexual desires, but it can actually be used to describe one’s craving for any form of pleasure forbidden by the Lord. This craving, which emerges from one’s fallen nature, provides the energy that drives a person to go after his sin of choice.

Modern believers now face a level of temptation First Century Christians could never have imagined. The prosperity we enjoy and the technological advances of our age have put nearly any desire within reach.

Such a flesh-pleasing lifestyle can quickly get out of hand, because the more a man attempts to satisfy the passion for sin, the less satisfied he becomes. In fact, the more that man pursues sin, the more inflamed his inward lust will become.

This always-demanding-never-satisfied characteristic of lust can drive a person into a state of near insanity. As millions have discovered, the ever-driving lust for pleasure cannot be placated.

2. “Self”

A hedonistic mindset can end up in only one place: a person who sees himself as the center of his universe. In his desire to escape hell (a motive not unlike the avoidance of other forms of suffering), such a person might be willing to incorporate a few particular biblical commandments into his life, but his heart remains unchanged and unconquered. As long as “Self” remains enthroned within, he will continue to live as a committed hedonist.

This way of living can quickly hollow out a person from the more meaningful things of life. The more he goes to the empty cisterns of this world to seek pleasure, the emptier he becomes.

Solomon is an example of someone who forfeited his walk with God for the pursuit of pleasure. At the end of his life, he would write, “I thought to myself, ‘Come now, I will try self-indulgent pleasure to see if it is worthwhile.’ But I found that it also is futile. I said of partying, ‘It is folly,’ and of self-indulgent pleasure, ‘It accomplishes nothing!’” (Ecclesiastes 2:1-2 NET)

I understand pleasure’s emptiness from personal experience. I spent many of my first thirty years of life driven by lust and living for Self. My sole purpose in life was to have everything I wanted and to gratify my insatiable lust for pleasure.

In the same way that such a lust-driven life is constantly being impelled with an ever greater force to find satisfaction, it also makes the person increasingly selfish. I can remember all too well how I demanded that everything go my way in life. I wanted what I wanted, when I wanted it—and if anyone stood in my way—I became irritated or even angry.

But the more I got what I desired and the more things went the way I wanted them to go, the more miserable I became. The more I gave the beast of Self what it demanded, the greater it became within me.

This is where hedonism takes people. Since they see themselves as the center of everything, the things and experiences they desire move beyond the realm of desire into that of necessity. Once a person becomes addicted to pleasure, it is increasingly difficult—especially in our culture—to find contentment in the things of God.

3. Feelings

At the heart of hedonism is the life of sense: “If it feels good, it must be right!” For the hedonistic Christian, one’s feelings determine everything. If he feels like obeying God, he obeys Him. If he doesn’t feel like it, he doesn’t do it. Obedience then becomes a matter of subjective convenience and choice—all revolving around how he feels at the moment.

One modern writer expressed the inward conviction of the typical hedonist this way: “My feelings determine my choices. I accept only what makes me feel good, happy, comfortable, excited, and so on. I reject what disturbs or troubles me, or is too demanding or difficult, or threatens my personal pleasure. I also reject whatever has ceased to thrill me. I reject what is boring.”(1) No wonder heartfelt submission to God is so rarely seen in our churches!

And herein lies the primary reason why Christian men have no strength to withstand sexual temptation. Since their feelings are given preeminent place in their lives, they find that they do not have the spiritual wherewithal to withstand temptations when they appear.

One of the first things we teach the men who come to the nine-month Pure Life Ministries Residential Program is that they must escape this feelings-driven way of life. Until they make a resolute decision that obedience to God and submission to His will are going to establish the course of their lives, they will never get free of an addiction to sexual pleasure.

We also dispel the assumption they arrive with that after they complete the program they will simply return to the same lifestyle they had before coming—only without the sexual sin and its consequences, of course. However, it doesn’t take them long to understand that the hedonistic lifestyle they led before arriving on our campus is what allowed their addiction to flourish in the first place. That lifestyle must change before the power of the addiction can be broken.

Addressing the Issues

My wife was recently asked by a denominational magazine to submit an article about what the wives of sexual addicts experience. I appreciated the fact that they were devoting an entire issue of their publication to the issue of pornography in the Church. The denomination president even wrote a moving piece about how spiritually devastated he had been as an adolescent when he first encountered pornography.

I was anxious to see what kind of answers their articles would offer to those addicted to pornography. I was disheartened—but certainly not surprised—to find that the only answers they had to offer were accountability and an internet filter. These have become the stock answers the Church offers to hopeless souls.

These are certainly helpful tools as one battles his way out of addiction, but they do not address the underlying problem. Where is the heartfelt call to true, life-changing repentance? When will we hear the kind of earnest appeals to holy living that stir the soul to live a more noble life? Why can’t Christian leaders understand that the power to break the hold of sin only comes from true intimacy with God—the kind of nearness to the Lord that comes from a vibrant devotional life and a consecrated life?

I fear that pornography usage will not only continue but become increasingly more accepted in the Evangelical Church. As long as Christians remain committed to the great god Pleasure, its various forms will be welcomed and the demands of self-denial made by Jesus will be rejected.

I fear we have passed the point of no return. We’re addicted to pleasure and happy to have it so.

(1) www.godswordforyou.com

In this episode, we play an interview conducted by the Clarity Podcast featuring Pure Life’s Pastor Ed Buch and our Director of Intake, Ken Larkin. The Clarity Podcast is geared towards missionaries. So the host wanted us to weigh in on some of the issues overseas Christian workers face regarding sexual temptation. Ed and Ken tackle these issues from a biblical perspective, centering their answers in the Word of God and how we’ve seen it impact men in our programs for over 35 years.

Resources

• For any ministry worker struggling with temptation, we would encourage you to check out our Residential Program. For those of you who are unable to come to our Residential Program, we would encourage you to check out our Overcomers at Home Program.

• A Biblical Guide to Counseling the Sexual Addict (Book) by Steve Gallagher