That brings us to the last concern that I have this morning, namely to show that the

battle against lust is the battle against unbelief or to put it positively, the fight for

purity, sexual purity, purity of the imagination and the mind and heart is a fight of faith.

So how do we fight against lust? How do we fight for purity in the mind and heart? That's

the question John Piper answers from First Thessalonians 4, 1-8 in this episode of Light

and Truth. The sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 13,

1988.

Let's begin with a biblical definition of lust. This would be the one that I suggest and then

I'll try to show you where I get it from in this text. Lust is a sexual desire that

dishonors its object and disregards God. Lust is a sexual desire that dishonors its object

and disregards God. Let's look at verse 4. Now the Revive Standard Version says that each

one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion

of lust like the heathen who do not know God. Now sexual desire is good. Let's just settle

that at the outset. God thought it up. God created it. God made it. It has its proper ordained

place in his creation. It's good. He meant it to be governed or regulated or channeled

and guided by two higher commitments. The commitment to honor people and the commitment to

revere God in holiness. So let's just take those one at a time and think about them for a moment.

God established a relationship called marriage at the outset of creation. The intention of

that relationship was to be one man, one woman forming a lifelong covenant in which they

commit themselves to honor each other as the heirs of life together. Therefore to say to another

person, I want you to satisfy my sexual desire, but I don't want you as a covenant partner. It's

the same as saying, I want your body for my pleasure, but I don't want you as a whole person.

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