If the devil cannot keep us from obeying the teachings of Jesus
he'll try to turn each one of those teachings into something different from what Jesus actually said.
I think this has happened in a very big way with the following passage from the Sermon on the Mount.
"You have heard that it has been said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'.
"But I say unto you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her
"has committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Mathew 5:27-28).
Now, remember that Jesus had just compared murder with anger.
In both cases, he was trying to get the people to see what spirit leads
to people breaking the ten commandments, and then in each case he would deal with the root cause.
So, if it is anger that leads us to murder, what is it that leads us to commit adultery?
Jesus said it was lust. But what is lust?
Some people have concluded that our natural sex drive is the same as lust.
It's easy to make the connection. Obviously, if we had no interest in sex, we probably would not commit adultery.
But it's a little like saying that if we didn't have arms, we couldn't stab somebody or rob them
and so all we need to do is cut off people's arms.
In fact, just being alive enables us to commit many sins.
But Jesus wasn't going quite that far in trying to find the root cause of adultery.
I do not think he was addressing a natural male need to ejaculate
when he set out to identify what it is that causes adultery.
I'll say more about what lust actually means in a bit; but first let me talk about how men are made.
We have a continual and natural buildup of seminal fluids within the body, for most of our adult life.
This fluid eventually leaves the body through ejaculation.
If you don't have sex, if you don't masturbate
the fluid will leave the body during sleep in what we often call a 'wet dream.'
We get the name 'wet', of course, from the fact that fluid comes out.
But calling it a dream recognizes that, whenever the fluid leaves the body, there is a pleasurable sensation.
This is the very same sensation that makes sex pleasurable.
When we're sleeping, the fluid still gives a very strong pleasurable sensation.
This sensation often causes us to have a dream at the precise moment that the fluid leaves the body.
In the dream, we're almost always doing something of a sexual nature.
Well, when someone masturbates or stimulates the penis while awake, much the same thing happens.
The fluid comes out, it feels good, and it happens in connection with thoughts about sex.
All of this is quite natural...like going to the toilet.
The fluid builds up, then it needs to be released.
Also, the penis itself gets hard several times a day in most men, even when we're asleep.
Obviously, one way to make it go down is to masturbate.
Unfortunately, men all of the world have been made to feel guilty about this.
And in Christian circles, it is most often done
through reference to the passage that I just quoted from Jesus.
The one about looking at a woman with lustful thoughts.
But look again.
Is Jesus saying that getting sexually aroused--sometimes without even looking at a woman
is the same as committing adultery in your heart?
Is he saying that having a wet dream is the same as committing adultery in your heart?
Is he saying that masturbating is the same as committing adultery in his heart?
No, I don't think so. Read it.
"Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her." What is lust?
Lust is wanting to have or to do something that God has forbidden.
Given the opportunity to do it, and to get away with it, you would do it.
When that is your attitude, you are lusting.
Now because someone dreams that they're having sex with someone
does that necessarily mean that they would actually have sex with that person if they could get away with it?
Well, unfortunately, for a lot of men these days, it does. But it's not necessarily the case.
It's like loving cheesecake. You can love it, eat it, enjoy it, and not feel guilty.
But if you don't have it, and you have to steal to get it
then you find out whether that desire for cheesecake is lust.
Would you do something you know you should not do
(in this case stealing) if you knew you could get away with it, just so that you could get that cheesecake?
If so, then whether you ever get around to stealing it or not, you're guilty of lust.
You've lusted after the cheesecake. You're guilty of wanting to break the rules.
And it's quite likely that given the opportunity
and given it in a context where you can get away with it, you would break the rules.
Whether it's stealing to have that cheesecake
or just having sex on the sly with someone to whom you're not married.
Now, here is where pornography comes into the picture.
Pornography did not exist in Bible times. It is, in fact, a very recent invention.
The invention of the Internet
and the proliferation of personal computers, which people can use almost anywhere now
has given people all over the world the opportunity to do exactly what the Pharisees would have loved to do.
They can do what they should not do, and they can do it without getting caught.
Men around the world now have both the opportunity and the anonymity--through pornography
to do what they've secretly wanted to do all along, and that is commit adultery.
Throughout history, it's quite likely that every generation would have engaged in sexual immorality
if only they had access to what we in today's world have access to through the Internet.
Suddenly, people everywhere are having virtual sex with real people
by combining pornography with masturbation.
Now, it's not the masturbation that is wrong; it's the lust that makes it wrong.
Lust is an actual desire to do the real thing.
I'm not talking about wet dreams or fantasies now
but actually getting real people to be sexually intimate with you.
Such lust is now almost globally pandemic.
Churches are full to the brim with young people, married couples, even clergy
who are viewing pornography...often on a regular basis.
They tell themselves, " Oh, it's not real sex", but it involves real people
and it quickly progresses to private sessions online, phone sex
and then dating sites that are little more than brothels.
It is real sex, because it's with real people
behaving in ways that you would never be able to justify if you were doing it in your own home.
Now, this is exactly what Jesus was talking about. Lust is that willingness to break God's rules.
Lust has been there all along, but it's taken pornography to show just how universal lust is, even in a church.
It's overwhelming evidence that we no longer have a conscience toward God.
Our concern is not whether it's right in the eyes of God
our concern is only about whether or not we can get away with it.
Nevertheless, it is our misunderstanding about masturbation
which has caused so many Christian men to give up.
They've tried to stop masturbating, tried to stop having wet dreams
tried to make the fluid dry up inside their bodies
but it keeps coming out, and they keep experiencing sexual pleasure when it happens.
So they assume that they're guilty of committing adultery.
They cave-in and combine masturbation and with pornography
and they become guilty of something they would not have been guilty of
if only the church leaders had been more faithful in teaching men that sexual pleasure, by itself, is not sinful.
Unlike the Pharisees, we now have the freedom to give in to our lust and still get away with it.
But like the Pharisees, we still go out in stone gays in our self-righteousness.
Well, gay sex is no more wrong than the lust that controls nearly everyone in the churches today.
I'm not talking masturbation. I'm talking pornography.
No where in the Bible--you hear me--nowhere does it condemn masturbation.
You think people didn't masturbate in Bible times?
You think God doesn't know that it happens all over the world?
Do you think God was too bashful to come right out and say
"Thou shalt not play with thyself until thy seed spills."
No, God knows that men masturbate. He made us that way!
Just like he gave us taste buds to enjoy all the delicious food he's provided for us in his creation.
Yet a misinterpretation of what Jesus said about lust has laid a heavy burden on men everywhere
forcing many of us to feel almost suicidal with the guilt, causing many more to become hypocrites
pretending we don't masturbate whenever the subject comes up.
Am I right?
If I'm not, then I can expect to get a flood of letters from you guys saying
"I stopped masturbating when I became Christian. I think most other Christian men don't masturbate either."
But be honest. We all masturbate.
There may be an exception for some married men
although most married men do as well, when their wives are going through their period or when their wife is sick
or when couple is separated.
But when pornography came along (and it was there even in my generation, through girly magazines)
many of us have assumed that we might as well go that one step closer to hell, since we're guilty anyway.
But this is not the way God meant for it to be. You don't have to watch porn, even if you do masturbate.
Masturbate all you like, and enjoy it as a gift from God, but don't mess around with pornography.
Don't involve some other human being.
That's what God made the adultery rule for: to reserve intimacy for our husband or wife.
Yes, sure, when we masturbate, we fantasize about having sex
but keep it fantasies; keep it faceless; whatever you do, don't start fantasizing about someone you know.
There are plenty of thoughts that can go through your mind when you're masturbating
without you actually wanting to do them in real life.
So, know where to draw that line...and that line is that God forbids sexual intimacy with real people.
And most porn is just that: real people.
If you bumped into that same woman on the streets
could you talk freely with her about what happened between you and her through the screen?
If God would not be happy for what is happening on the screen, to be happening in your bedroom
then don't be a part of it.
Don't contribute to the real fornication that is happening on the screen; stay away from it.
Remember, lust is wanting to do what God has forbidden.
God has not forbidden masturbation
but he has forbidden sexual intimacy with real people...no loopholes, no technicalities.
Pornography with real people is crossing the line, and it stems from lust
the desire to cheat on the rules if you can get away with it.
Because the temptations are so great these days
Christian men need to arm themselves to stay faithful to God.
I'm going to tell you what I do, and I'm in my 70s.
I have three other men to whom I report every week.
Every Saturday night, we send an email to each other.
Mostly it just says, "Nothing to report."
What that means is that we have not viewed any pornography during the week.
This little bit of accountability is amazing in terms of how well it keeps us on rails.
Occasionally, someone will have something to report
even if it's just that something popped up on their computer and they
hesitated long enough to take it in before they deleted it.
If we are committed to confessing that sin to each other
it goes a very long way toward making us all want to do better the next week.
Over time, we have found that this really works.
We are jointly committed to fighting lust.
But it doesn't stop us from masturbating.
In fact, something that may surprise you is is sometimes if a particular brother
is having a lot of trouble with lust
someone will ask him, "Have you been masturbating regularly?"
Now, the strange thing about this question, when we ask it
is that it's not being asked to put him down, it's being asked because masturbation is the God given natural
safety valve to help control lust.
If you don't want to steal cheesecakes, then eat something else to take away the hunger.
In conclusion, I know that this video is going to upset a lot of people, especially wives and mothers.
But I felt that it was necessary because of all the guilt and the hypocrisy that exists around this whole subject
and also because of the confusing link between masturbation and pornography.
If we can get it clear in our heads about what lust is
and how pornography uses forbidden sexual activity to stimulate masturbation
and what lust is NOT: masturbation for the purpose of releasing seminal fluid
including enjoyment of the pleasure that accompanies it
then we can get back to working on the other important things that Jesus really did have something to say about
to us as Christians.
I hope this liberates a lot of men out there who've been laboring under this false guilt for so many years!
God bless you!