On Wednesdays, we dive back into the 1200 sermons we have of Pastor John's at DesiringGod.org

and pull out some choice clips from some old messages.

The following clip is taken from John Pepper's sermon, battling the unbelief of lust,

which he preached 25 years ago.

On 1st Thessalonians 4, verses 1-8, in the sermon, he explains why sexual sin is an

act of unbelief.

Here's what he said.

I'm trying to explode the doctrine that the battle for obedience is optional because only faith is necessary for salvation.

This is very tricky the way words are used here.

Here's my response.

The battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for salvation because it is the fight of faith.

The battle for obedience is absolutely necessary for getting to heaven because it is the battle against unbelief.

It is the fight of faith.

There are not two battles.

One to get yourself saved by a single act of faith and the other to collect rewards by works.

There is only one battle.

It's the one that gets you started.

It's the one that gets you there and it's the fight of faith, not works.

Faith is what severs the root of covetousness, misplaced shame, anxiety, lust and tonight envy and six more before we're done this year.

There is one warfare and it is the warfare of faith.

Let's go to verse 5 and I'll try to demonstrate for you why I think this text teaches

that the root cause of lust is unbelief.

...