In "Specific Directives, Part 2," Pastor Albert N. Martin concludes his series on Romans 13:14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts." He provides intensely practical and pastoral directives for implementing the negative mandate of making no provision for the flesh. Building on the previous sermon's call for self-examination and ridding oneself of unnecessary provisions, Martin now instructs believers to reconstruct their management of necessary possessions, relationships, and activities to prevent them from becoming occasions for sin, and to resolutely avoid unnecessary situations or relationships that constitute provision for the flesh. He illustrates these points with examples related to money, gluttony, and sexual purity, drawing heavily from Proverbs and 1 Corinthians.
Primary Texts
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Romans 13:11-14The foundational text for the entire series, specifically the command to 'make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof,' which is the focus of this sermon's practical directives.
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1 Corinthians 6:12-20Expounded as a classic passage on the body, appetite, and sexual purity, providing a biblical framework for understanding and managing these aspects of life.
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Proverbs 23:1-3Expounded through commentary to illustrate the principle of self-control and bridling appetite, particularly in the context of eating.
Introduction: The Mandate to Make No Provision for the Flesh0:02
Review of Preliminary Charge and First Directive4:35
Directive 2: Reconstruct Management of Necessary Provisions7:27
Illustrations of Reconstructing Management: Money and Covetousness12:12
Illustrations of Reconstructing Management: Credit Cards and Riches16:17
Reconstructing Management: The Body and Gluttony22:07
Reconstructing Management: The Activity of Eating31:39
Reconstructing Management: Sexual Capacity and Marriage40:47
Reconstructing Management: Practical Measures for Sexual Purity47:15
Directive 3: Resolutely Avoid Unnecessary Situations or Relationships48:47
Further Proverbs on Avoiding Temptation52:35
Conclusion: The Importance of Dealing with Temptation55:16
Key Quotes
“We are positively to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and negatively we are to make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts.”
“You must reconstruct your management of every necessary possession, relationship, or activity, so that they do not become a provision for the flesh.”
“I regard my body. Paul said the body is not for fornication. He would say by inference because he has dealt with eating in the previous verses. The body is not for illicit eating and gluttony.”
“How can I glorify God in the activity of eating unless I eat in a perspective that is rooted in what God has said eating should be to me?”
“If a heathen could say, I am greater and born to greater things than to be the servant of my body, is it not a shame for a Christian as he is, the everlasting, to be the slave?”
“Never detach 1 Corinthians 7 from Ephesians 5 and 1. It's Peter 3. And until you're prepared to live with a woman in a relationship of sensitive, selfless, self-giving love as Christ loved the church, don't you go grab a wife just to vent your lust upon her.”
“There comes a time when you run and the most holy thing you can do is just move.”
“Until the people of God are more determined to deal with temptations to sin, they'll make no progress in dealing with sin itself. The person who is careless about temptation shows that he is not a sinner. That he is really indifferent to the matter of sin.”
Applications
Parents & families
Until you're prepared to live with a woman in a relationship of sensitive, selfless, self-giving love as Christ loved the church, don't you go grab a wife just to vent your lust upon her.
Until you're prepared to dwell with a wife according to knowledge as unto the weaker vessel, to nourish her and cherish her, don't go to a marriage altar under the pressure of 1 Corinthians 7.
Be fully intoxicated with the love of your own legitimate wife as a means to prevent sexual sin.
If you would not make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust, even if you've got to be lonely, you must be willing for that. Enter not into the path of the wicked.
All listeners
Undergo a serious exercise in self-examination to face honestly all the ways in which provision is being made to fulfill your own particular fleshly lusts.
Rid yourselves of every unnecessary possession, relationship, or activity which becomes a provision for the lust of the flesh.
Reconstruct your management of every necessary possession, relationship, or activity, so that they do not become a provision for the flesh.
Go home and look yourself in the mirror and say, 'Thank you, Lord, that you did not allow me to fall before that sin and for giving me the grace to put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for that flesh.'
Think of your body in a biblical way, asking 'How do you regard your body?' and 'Does your body reflect the redemptive power of Christ or is it a monument to the lust for food?'
Ask, 'In what light do I regard the activity of eating?' Is it for relieving tension, satisfying unmet psychological needs, or taking the edge off frustration, rather than for God's glory?
Put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite, meaning to bridle appetite as by violence, giving no quarter to the lust.
Ask, 'In what light do I regard this body (male or female)?' and 'Do I regard it as something created in the image of God?'
Ask, 'In what light do I regard this very activity of sex?' Do I regard it as something that terminates upon myself, or as God created it to be?
Be prepared for the measures necessary to run from certain things that are an unnecessary provocation of sexual lust, even if it means being abrupt or leaving.
Resolutely avoid every unnecessary situation or relationship which constitutes provision for the flesh.
Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger, and with a wrathful man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul.
Remove thy way far from the immoral woman, and do as if you never come near the door of her house.
Don't look upon an immoral woman, don't gaze upon her eyes, don't let her catch you with her tongue or her eyes. Avoid her looks.
Make the book of Proverbs part of your regular diet for wisdom in avoiding temptation.
Be continually feeding upon what Christ is as your Savior, your relationship to Him, union with Him, and all the provisions of grace that are stored up in Him. Be continually putting on the Lord Jesus.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 140 paragraphs, roughly 61 minutes.
Machine transcription
Introduction: The Mandate to Make No Provision for the Flesh
The following message was delivered on November 8, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This is the fifth and final message in a series by Pastor Albert N. Martin on Romans 13 and verse 14, entitled, Putting on Christ. I encourage you to follow in your Bibles as I read this evening for the fifth and final time, at least for the present season of ministry, Romans 13.
Verses 11 through 14, the thirteenth chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Rome, beginning our reading with verse 11. And this, knowing the season, that already it is time for you to awake out of sleep, for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore count.
Cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Now let us again. And seek the face of God for the blessing of the Spirit upon the ministry of the Word.
Our Father, we bow with thanksgiving for the remembrance of your nearness and gracious aid as we have meditated upon this portion of your Word over the past few Lord's Day evenings.
And yet we are very conscious that the blessing given in our past seasons together will not suffice for this present hour. Amen. As you came to your ancient people with fresh manna every day, so Lord, feed us from your own hand as we turn to the Word of God. We pray that in keeping with your own promises of the new covenant, that you by your own mighty power will write your laws upon our hearts.
Take this precept of new covenant law, and inscribe it upon our hearts, and may it bear fruit in practical godliness in all of our lives. Hear us, we plead, in the honor of your beloved Son. Amen.
We have noted in the past few weeks in directing our attention to Romans 13-14 that there are few texts which more comprehensively articulate both the provisions and the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit. and the responsibilities of a Christian with respect to the ongoing battle with remaining sin. This text, as we have seen, sets before us two very vital imperatives in that battle. We are positively to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and negatively we are to make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts.
And in these two mandates, the mandate to put on Christ, the mandate to make no provision for the flesh, we have, as it were, the pivots of so much Christian duty that is taught elsewhere in other terminology throughout the scriptures. Now, having expounded the text in some detail, I have sought, or did seek, in the last meditation, last Lord's Day evening, and will seek again tonight, to be intensely practical and warmly pastoral in my application of the latter part of the text.
Review of Preliminary Charge and First Directive
Having expounded what it means to make not provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts, I am now seeking to give some specific directives by which to implement that mandate. And in our meditation last Lord's Day evening, I set before you what I called a, a preliminary charge, and it was this, that you must undergo a serious exercise in self-examination in order to face honestly all of the ways in which provision is being made to fulfill your own particular fleshly lusts. And in giving you that charge,
I was simply expressing in human language what is given to us in the words of God himself through David the prophet, when he said in Psalm 119 and verse 59, I fought on my ways, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy statutes. And this matter of self-examination, seeking to discover the whole network by which we feed any given lust, is a task that must be undertaken prayerfully, honestly, and humbly. Thoroughly. And then I began to set before you, in addition to that preliminary charge,
several specific and practical directives in this great work of seeking to make no provision for the flesh. And we had time to consider only one last Lord's Day, and it was this. We must rid ourselves of every unnecessary possession, relationship, or activity, which becomes, a provision for the lust of the flesh. If we are serious about obeying Romans 13, 14, then having been honest about the many ways in which we do make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust,
we must then begin to rid ourselves of every unnecessary possession, relationship, or activity, which becomes to us a provision, for fleshly lusts. We dare not rid others of those things, for they may not be an unnecessary occasion to the flesh for them. But we must be prepared to pluck out our own right eyes, and cut off our own right hands, in the pursuit of universal holiness. Now tonight, in concluding this study, I want to set before you two more specific directives.
Directive 2: Reconstruct Management of Necessary Provisions
And the second one is this.
You must reconstruct your management of every necessary possession, relationship, or activity, so that they do not become a provision for the flesh. You see, it's relatively easy to rid ourselves of every unnecessary possession, relationship, or activity that becomes an occasion to the flesh, but there are many possessions, relationships and activities which are necessary to us in the fulfillment of our Christian duty. And yet, those very necessary possessions, relationships,
and activities become an occasion to fulfill the lust of the flesh. What do we do with them? Well, we must learn to reconstruct our management of those possessions, of those relationships, and of those activities, so that they no longer become a stock provision for the gratification of fleshly lusts. Now let me explain what I mean in a manner that I trust will be clear to all.
Here is a man who has problems with covetousness, a covetousness that it's far away to choose to become a beggar. A man that can be exchanged for money except the clothing on his back, and to get a tin cup, and go, or park himself in some thoroughfare and become a beggar. But you see, the problem is, the man happens to be married and have three children,
and he happens to have an aging mother who is dependent upon him.
Money,
and becomes an occasion for the fulfillment of his lust of covetousness, not irresponsibly rid himself of money, for to do so would be to sin against God and against those loved ones. First Timothy 5.8, If any man does not provide for his own, he is maybe another man struggling with the problem of gluttony, who says, All right, I'm going to cure this problem. I am simply going to eat two meals and become sick.
God-given duties. See here, he is violating many other biblical mandates in taking that course of action. Or another. This finds he's weary with his inordinate sex, either mentally, or what I'll do, I'll have myself surgically, made into a eunuch.
He's a married man, and God says the husband is to render to the wife her due. So he cannot have himself made into a eunuch, and be obedient to God. So you see, it is this in which we find ourselves in possessions, and activities, yet they provide an occasion to the flesh, that perhaps the greatest amount of determination is needed to sort these things out. And my word of direction to you is, I must,
learn how to reconstruct our relationship,
become an occasion to the flesh. Now let me give a step, who has money in his possession. Imagine, and as I said last week, I'm using all imaginary illustrations. Not one of them is something that I've had to deal with.
Illustrations of Reconstructing Management: Money and Covetousness
So some of the illustrations may seem ridiculous. It's only because I've had to go to the ridiculous, to avoid taking something that came out of real life. The man who has found that, when he has extra money,
the corner store is coming. And here's a man who's, he manifests the grace of God,
some kind of electronic space paper at the store, or some other item. Whatever money's in his pocket, he ends up converting it to quarters, and pumping into the slot of his electronic machine. And he's prayed about this matter, he's humbled over it, he's prayed to God, but he seems to get no deliverance. Then one day he's reading his Bible, and he comes across Romans, Romans 13,
not to lament that with regard to my inordinate love,
the money to buy what he'd go for, he'd have no money. He's not about to pound on the machine and make it work for nothing. And he's not about to stand outside the store and beg for quarters. He has too much sense of pride to do that.
And so he makes the marvelous discovery.
A quart of milk, he says,
such and such. He says, all right. I go to the store. How much money do I have with me?
And he makes sure that he has precisely the amount of money he needs. He goes to the store, asks for the quart of milk. He's there, and everything in him is drawn by that inordinate love.
Terry, to fulfill his lust, and having himself the money so he can buy the quart of milk. How can such a man hold his head high, look himself in the mirror, and call himself a man? Can he look himself in the mirror if he's a slave? He's his master.
There's nothing unmanly with Terry. Here is a love, here is an appetite that is bigger than I am, that will consume if I make any provision for it. He can go home and look himself in the mirror and say, thank you, Lord, that you did not allow me to fall before that sin and for giving me the grace to put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for that flesh. ...with a good conscience
Illustrations of Reconstructing Management: Credit Cards and Riches
before... Take that woman we dealt with last week who had a problem with her credit card.
Well, if the financial structure is such that her husband only gets paid once a month or he may be in agriculture and cash comes in in even lesser amounts of times and there is money put away in savings accounts and in the administration of family finances, it is better rather than having a lot of cash around for necessary family items to be put on a credit card to be paid every single month to his revolving charge account, no interest on it, and the husband and wife, as they've discussed the family finances, agree that this is the best way
and mutually agreed upon, on certain that are needed for me to purchase for the household of the family at which time I will take the credit card, purchase only those things, present all the sale
pick items and then to give. Doesn't sound dispirited but may not sound an implementation of make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. There must be of our relations possessions necessary activities or relationships so we must be re- become an occasion to fulfill
to be illustrated in a passage and in particular with people who have more than an average amount of money. In the charge given to the rich in 1st Timothy chapter 6 it's very interesting the pastoral realist as we see this morning recognized that with riches there would come peculiar temptations but a man who is made wealthy that he is to become unwealthy
we have a case where the Lord Jesus told a certain wealthy man that he had to sell all that he had but that was his dealings with us and there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that people are under Christian obligation to relinquish their and now we find this general charge in 1st Timothy 6 that they get rid of their riches so that they will not be tempted to fall before the lust of pride and high-mindedness so that they will not be tempted to put their hope in their riches
they will then be in a position to be exemplary Christians. That isn't what he says they're telling evangelicals in our day they're saying that any Christ excesses excessive wealth poverty is sub-Christian economic they are rich in their riches and so
God is given that they do not become an occasion for the flesh notice charge them that they be not high-minded them that they do not become lofty and aloof and on the uns that they be rich that they be ready to do to distribute willing to communicate
lay selves of good nation against the time to come on the life sessions they do not become to the matter of food
Reconstructing Management: The Body and Gluttony
gluttony one of the sins within the context of our text gluttony or excessing is a common sin in an affluent society
writing to a people lived in a society in which gluttony was a form of entertainment some of you know something about some of their feasts some of their activities were connected with that kind of reveling and what the reveling is referring to the kind of feasting in which people make a god what are we to do the problem which we have
is in itself a very active brick of our creatureliness he never entered man was made a creature who must eating is not a sinful activity first timothy four three through five we are told that all of god's gifts if they be received will they be sanctified by the word of god and prayer and our lord taught us to pray give us this day our daily bread and the scripture says having food and raiment let us therewith
be gluttony or an excess auric intake whether mass or evident in excess necessary act as a necessity
so do i regard my body your hand takes the the other organs
and the rest digest it and assimilate it in a mastery over a lost biblical critical regard your body and for first corinthians chap probably the classic passage in the new testament appetite
corinthians six and things are lawful for me i will not be bought under the power of any in the belly for meats have a stomach and he made food he was made for meats the meat
could not longer be dependent upon food as we now are he is not a fornication and now he zeroes in on the appetite for sexual gratification the body is not for fornication but for the lord and the lord for the body and god both raised the lord and will raise us up through his power members of crime i take away the members of christ and make the members of a harlot god forbid or you know off the he that is going to a harlot is one body for the two said he should become one but he did it and to the lord is one spirit the fornication
and the demand of these without the body the computer on this one occasion syntex his own body or no you not that your party at the temple of the police put you have been talking you are not your own or new own text it's the whole hope of my soul also
if i'm not given actual appetite for food lawtony you my body
body. I'm saying my body was given of a mere body that God has given to me. Body that was
that no vanity might be delivered from bondage to such a regard for body that it is misgluttony
and an inordinate indulge of the flesh. I regard my body. Paul said the body is not for fornication. He would say by inference because he has dealt with eating in the previous verses. The body is
not for illicit eating and gluttony. Redemption of inordinate eating. A mouth in the mirror and know who and what that body is. Speak to yourself. We have no control and we can only look ourselves
in the mirror and say thank God the redemptive power of Christ will one day take a bent, a broken, skinny. Anyone who is overweight, excessive eating, can you look in the mirror and say that body reflects.
Or do you look in the mirror and have to say what I see is a monument to the power of the lust for food for which I am making so many provisions. How do you regard your body? You must think of your body in a biblical way. Then you must ask a second question. In what light do I regard the activity
Reconstructing Management: The Activity of Eating
of eating? Is eating? Is eating intended to be a means of relieving tension? Satisfying unmet psychological needs? Trying to take the edge off frustration? Most people who eat too much, that's what they regard eating. That's how they regard it. They regard eating as an activity that has many, many functions which have no relationship to the biblical doctrine of eating. There is a biblical doctrine of eating, you know.
1 Corinthians 10.31 Whether therefore you...
Eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now how can I glorify God in the activity of eating unless I eat in a perspective that is rooted in what God has said eating should be to me? And what is eating to be? It is to be a pleasurable activity by which I assimilate sufficient food in proper proportions to remain as far as is possible with my dietary patterns a healthy, virile, useful,
bond slave. That I eat the most distasteful, paired in the sloppiest way. When I make little...
Goes down. No, no. God gave us our taste buds. Capacity to like and to dislike certain foods. The devil didn't give us our taste buds. Nor did the devil give us the pleasurable sensation of being comfortably...
filled from a good meal. Those are the gifts of God. But I must regard the activity of eating in the light of Holy Scriptures to be the means by which I am strengthened to...
...do what is necessary to maintain what is essential to bring glory...
...to longer eating...
Some of you will make little progress again in obeying this mandate. Make no provision of flesh to...
...biblicly that second.
...who I regard the activities...
...am I prepared...
...within...
the boundaries of powering the book of the Word in chapter 23, you may consider diligently him or what is set before you, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite.
Now I want to read Charles Bridge's very perceptive comments on that text. I don't often read a lengthy portion, but I hope to read in a manner that is interesting and not dull. So, when you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you. Put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they
are deceitful meat. The book of God is our rule of practice, not less than a faith. It enforces religion not only in our religious, but in our natural action. It directs us in the daily detail.
Suppose we are invited, in a way of providence, to the table of a man of rank. How wise the caution! Consider diligently what is before thee. Think where you are. What is the besetting
temptation? What impression your conduct is likely to make? Wantonness of appetite or levity of manner gives a plausible ground of prejudice to the ungodly, or a stumbling to the weak. But after all, we are invited to the table of a man of rank.
All ourselves are mainly concerned. May not the luxuries of the table spread before us stir up disproportionate indulgence? The rule is plain and urgent. If thou art conscious of being given to appetite, making it thy first object and delight, bridle it as by violence, as if a knife was at thy throat. Turn and resolute with thyself. Give no quarter
to the lust. Resist every renewed indulgence. The dainties are deceitful meat. Sometimes from the insincerity of the host, always from the disappointment. Whose then may be lawful, the desirous of
them is fearfully dangerous. Who that knows his own weakness will deem not the lust of the tarnished a Christian profession, and damp the liveliness of spiritual apprehensions and enjoyment. If Christ's disciples, conversant, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, all-encompassing, how much more must it be to take heed at the banquet? How much more must it apply
to the ruler's table, where everything ministers? It is man for mals high prerogative to have Performcontent over the creature. . It is so that he who will outshone the Nekromre's bosom, not those of God.
It is his tur tan who shan't outshone his other soul's consciousness because he was mad. It is his zen shai'in who took form, but he is the one who nor alone reached command over it. It is his shame that오� içer, in any form, shu�d have dominion over him. God gives us our milk cannot Gracias!
Man craves to make religion for the wants, but not for what is on the Lord Jesus Christ. To never degrade itself to be a purveyor of the flesh. If a heathen could say, I am greater and born to greater things than to be the servant of my body, is it not a shame for a Christian as he is, the everlasting, to be the slave?
Tend to the bounds of intemperance is to incur imminent danger of exceeding. He that takes his full liberty in what he may, shall repent him. The nation presses hard, the strongest guard thy desires, though they be somewhat importunate, and thou shalt find in time incredible benefit.
God says, you may happily vow for God, yet when some repeated fall,
and your constant defeat which cripples your conscience and loads you with guilt and makes you unfit to live with, and makes your testimony to be, a thing of naught, you're paying too high a price to call such measures.
Reconstructing Management: Sexual Capacity and Marriage
Make not proof, you must reconstruct with regard to the amount of money dealt with in the immediate context. The apostle says we're to walk becomingly, not in what would be a literal rendering, bedding around promiscuous other forms of uncleanness.
That's dealt with in the context, and I trust to deal delicately with it. The expressions of your sexual, capacity are the result of not reconstructing your relationship to that capacity and a legitimate framework for it. Say something that may sound strange to some of you. You know why you get no victory over inordinate and illegitimate expressions of your sexual appetite?
And some of you men don't, just because you won't take. You have fear because of past experiences. Some of you have been burned.
But, because you will not confront your inadequacies head-on and trust God to give you grace to overcome them.
And you're remaining in a state of singleness. In that context, let the wife render to the husband his due. Let the husband render to the wife her due. Now listen to me carefully.
The fact that you have unmet sexual needs is not in itself a warrant to take away. Never detach 1 Corinthians 7 from Ephesians 5 and 1. It's Peter 3. And until you're prepared to live with a woman in a relationship of sensitive, selfless, self-giving love as Christ loved the church, don't you go grab a wife just to vent your lust upon her.
Until you're prepared to dwell with a wife according to knowledge as unto the weaker vessel, to nourish her and cherish her,
go to a marriage altar under the pressure of 1 Corinthians 7. What? But having given that, that qualification, 1 Corinthians 7, 1 and following are there. And this is underscored again in Proverbs 5 and verse 15, where we find the writer warning his son about the sins of the flesh in this area.
What does he give as a means whereby the flesh would not crop out? And it's in verse 15 of Proverbs 5. In running waters out of your own cistern, in running waters out of your own well, should your springs be dispersed abroad in streams of water in the streets? Be for yourself alone and not for strangers with thee.
Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of thy youth as a loving hind and a pleasant doe. Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. For why should you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? You see what he says?
It is to be fully intoxicated with the love of your own legitimate wife.
The appetite and desire to be intoxicated.
Some of you again need to ask these very same questions with respect. In what light do you regard your body? That body that is either male or female. It is not a person's body.
It is a male body or a female body. With all this and maleness, you must ask, In what light do I regard this body? With it. Sexual appetites and capacities and energies and drives.
Do I regard it as something created in the image of God Jesus? We will make little.
In what light do I regard this very activity of sex? Do I regard it as something that terminates upon myself? You see, sexual experience can never be fulfilling. That is why you have married men.
Sexual experience can never be satisfying because God never created sexuality. To be on the object.
In what light do I regard the very activity of my sexual?
Reconstructing Management: Practical Measures for Sexual Purity
What measures am I prepared? Becoming an occasion of sinful indulgence. Oh yes, if I am to be a good Christian, I must be sufficiently informed about things in this world to communicate meaningfully to my neighbors and my schoolmates and others. There is nothing that says you need the television to keep you informed.
For some of you, the television is just a repeated occasion of mental and you've mourned and prayed and wept and no longer mourn and weep and pray and things on the television that ten years ago wouldn't have been shown in the worst of movie houses. Then you wonder why you make no progress because you're not prepared for the measures necessary at a time when you've got to run from certain things that are an unnecessary provocation of sexual lust and it's not unmanly to run.
Joseph is to stand and witness and stand and pray. He left her with his coat.
There comes a time when you run and the most holy thing you can do is just move.
Be abrupt if necessary.
Directive 3: Resolutely Avoid Unnecessary Situations or Relationships
Well, I trust I've given enough concrete examples that you get the thrust of that directive. And then I want to touch one other directive relatively briefly in conclusion. We must not only be prepared, as I've suggested in the earlier directives, to rid ourselves of every unnecessary relationship, possession, or action, and then to readjust our relationship to those necessary activities. But finally, we must resolutely avoid every unnecessary situation or relationship which constitutes provision for the flesh.
Resolutely avoid every unnecessary situation or relationship which constitutes a provision for the flesh. And here again the book of Proverbs is full of it. Take the matter of companions who become an occasion to stir up and then again verse 15. My son, sinners entice thee.
I'll not in the way with them refrain your foot from their path. See you boys and girls, your remarks from mom and dad. Where are you going to learn them?
When you begin to children listen. If you would not make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust, even if you've got to be lonely, you must be willing for that. Enter not into the path of the wicked.
Walk not in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass on.
Enter into the activity of sinners. He's telling you to get into their way.
He talks about companions again in chapter 20 and verse 19.
He that goeth about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets. Therefore don't keep me with him that opens wide his mouth.
That someone is a gossip, God says, because that will become an occasion to some remaining corruptions. Corruption in your own heart. And finally, and I say there are many others, chapter 22, verses 24 and 25. Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger, and with a wrathful man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul.
Maybe the guy that you really admire at school, the fellow that's the best, a hothead, says you'll end up a hothead. You make provision for your flesh because in your flesh and in mine, there is that capacity to be a hothead. The works of the flesh are anger and wrath. Don't company with such people.
Further Proverbs on Avoiding Temptation
They'll be like a magnet to draw that out of you until the deeds be companions is to avoid them. Lest we make provision for the flesh. Several passages in Proverbs chapter 4, verses 25 to 27.
Chapter 4, verses 25 to 27. Let thine eyes look right on. Let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Make level the path of thy faith.
Feed and let all thy ways be established. Do not turn to the right hand or to the left. Remove your foot.
Learn what it is to have eyeballs that can look straight on and not be turning aside to everything that would be an appeal to some aspect.
5. He gives a sober warning to his son. Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me. Verse 7.
Depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way. Fog is the immoral woman. And do as if you never come near the door of her house.
You'll never be in her bed.
And if you flirt with her door, it won't be long before you'll be in her bed.
That's the father talking to his son. Listen to his words in chapter 6, verses 24 and 25.
He says, I speak these things to keep you from the evil woman. Now notice, from the flattery of the foreigner's tongue, lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take you, with her eyelids, the moment you censure in the presence of an immoral woman. Don't look upon her. Don't gaze upon her eyes.
Don't let her catch you with her tongue or her eyes. Avoid her looks. And you will be kept from being snared by her wickedness. And I could go on quoting many other passages in the book of Proverbs, but I trust you make the book, the Proverbs, part of your regular diet.
And again and again, we are admonished resolutely to avoid every unnecessary situation or relationship which constitutes a provision for the flesh.
Conclusion: The Importance of Dealing with Temptation
Old John Owen said so perceptibly, until the people of God are more determined to deal with temptations to sin, they'll make no progress in dealing with sin itself. The person who is careless about temptation shows that he is not a sinner. That he is really indifferent to the matter of sin. Well, we come around full circle to where we began some weeks ago.
And I trust that God by the Holy Spirit will write upon our hearts and bring to our remembrance again and again this very vital text. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that's the primary duty. First, in order of importance, as well as in the very psychology of the Christian life, be continually, continually feeding upon what Christ is as your Savior.
Your relationship to Him, union with Him, and all the provisions of grace that are stored up in Him. Be continually putting on the Lord Jesus.
You and I must be careful that we make no probable demand of examination and periodic see when there seems to be
a network blessing of the Spirit.
We confess that it is no pleasant thing to mention of the human heart's subtlety of sin. And yet we thank you that it is the very ministry of the Lord Jesus to save His people from their sin. And we pray that the principles that we have completed tonight may be made operative in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit
again and again.
Because your grace is inadequate to either have been willfully ignorant of how the deliverance can be there. Put Him on.
Living in this grid of their lusts would be a great joy.
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It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Romans 13:11-14
The foundational text for the entire series, specifically the command to 'make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof,' which is the focus of this sermon's practical directives.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Expounded as a classic passage on the body, appetite, and sexual purity, providing a biblical framework for understanding and managing these aspects of life.
Proverbs 23:1-3
Expounded through commentary to illustrate the principle of self-control and bridling appetite, particularly in the context of eating.
Texts Expounded
auto_stories
This is the primary text for the entire sermon series, specifically focusing on the mandate to 'make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.'
auto_stories
This chapter, particularly verses 12-20, is presented as a classic New Testament passage on appetite, the body, and sexual purity, providing a biblical framework for regarding one's body and eating.
auto_stories
This passage, particularly the command to 'put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite,' is expounded through Charles Bridge's commentary to illustrate self-control in eating.
auto_stories
This passage is expounded as a means to prevent sexual sin by finding full satisfaction and intoxication in the love of one's own legitimate spouse.