Most don’t know the high cost of sexual sin. Speaking of the little “excursions” to the home of the seductress, the Lord warns the fool that they are not without consequence, “He knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell” Proverbs 9:18.

How graciously Satan adorns his invitations to Hell! He dresses (or undresses as the case may be), these invitations with beautiful young girls that wink and whisper and he hides Hell itself behind the most magnetic form ever made – the tempting form of a woman. The adulteress promises excitement for the moment but her guests soon find her promises are fatal. No one in hell is talking about the joy of stolen pleasures yet it seems to be the main theme in this world. Sex was created by a good God and is, certainly, good. There is no doubt, sexual pleasure is part of the benefit package of marriage and within that context is it truly pure and sweet. The problem is that sex has supplanted God and when anything replaces God – it can never satisfy our truest hunger.

The Devil has always been the master of redefinitions: at removing prohibitions (“Hath God said?). The trouble is, when you unbridle any pleasure or twist anything from its theological mooring it ceases to be good. Good redefined is not less good or more good, it’s evil. When will we ever get that?

Our churches are filled with men who are not only captivated by immorality, they are held in its grip because they want to be there. We are sick but we like our disease. So we play with what we know we should hate. The world has so conditioned our minds until we, as a church, have come to the place where Judah was before young King Josiah came to power. We have lost our purpose for being and our will to fight for it. Good King Josiah understood what few churches do today; holiness doesn’t coexist with evil. Living with ungodly neighbors on all borders, God had commanded Judah and Israel to maintain a unique and special holy calling within the context of an evil day...to declare His glory among the nations! Instead, Israel had adopted the heathen ways.

When young Josiah came to power he found idols in the temple itself, groves of the fertility cults surrounded the holy city of Jerusalem and ritual prostitutes (including Sodomites), were imbedded in the very culture of Judah’s religious life. Politicians were sacrificing their own children to the false gods of pleasure. What started in the borderlands of Canaan had now found its way into the temple and it is said of the kings of Judah, that ultimately, they were doing worse things than their ungodly neighbors, 2 Chronicles 33:9, states that Manasseh “made Judah to do worse that the heathen”. It would be this corrupt tide that would sweep them into 70 years of captivity.

Well, I never thought it would come to this...it was just a little idol in my bedroom.

In Ted Bundy’s final interview in prison before his execution, he stated that the reason he had murdered 28 women and children was that he was dominated by the violent and selfish culture of pornography. He stated something very telling, “Pornography can reach out and snatch any kid out of any house today. On the one hand, well-meaning decent people condemn my behavior while they walk past magazine racks full of the very images that send young kids down the road to being Ted Bundy. I’ve met a lot of violent men in prison, without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography.”

Josiah came in to power as a young man and he came with a vengeance for cleaning Judah’s streets and cities from all possible reminders of sexual and religious promiscuity. He cleaned house. Cleaning our spiritual houses is where it starts. Surely, it must go beyond that, but only in the context of genuine removal of all the opportunities of sinful compromise can we honestly begin the battle in earnest. Let me share 5 strategies for moral victory. Hope it helps:

1. Identify and Destroy All Zones of Temptation Over Which You Have Control. This includes tv, books, and computer viewing habits that war against your soul. 2 Chronicles 34, 2 Timothy 2:22. Don’t tell the Lord you’re serious about purity if you spend your days eating garbage.

2. Guard Your Heart (and Eyes) By Drawing Near to Him and His Purpose for Your Life. You were made for God and His reflection and pleasure – not your own. In pleasing God, all other pleasures find meaning. James 4:8,1 Peter 2:9-11, Revelation 4:11, I Thessalonians 4:3, 7-8, Matthew 6:33

3. Saturate Yourself with Scripture,Not Selfish Passions – Psalm 119:11, John 16:33, 1 Timothy 4:12-14. Sex is really a gift God gives married people to use as a ministry to their spouse. To abuse this principle is to confuse the theology of sex and make it all about me. 1 Corinthians 7:3. Sexual addicts all have one thing in common – selfishness.

4. Don’t Play with Sin – God is not mocked, Galatians 6:7-8. There is a point of no return where even the most powerful motorboat in the world will be pulled over Niagara Falls. Lesson? Don’t even get in the river of iniquitous fantasy. Understand that the Lord considers secret lust as dangerous as open sin. Matthew 5:28 So avoid the appearance of evil and the first thoughts of sin.

5. Rejoice in Your Mate and The Delights of Obedience to Christ. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusted in Him” Psalm 34:8. Sex in marriage is delightful, purity brings power for living, it protects and builds friendship with your spouse, children grow in trust and confidence that their parents are faithful to their vows, and the benefits that come from covenant love are endless.

Just live right!