It is important to see that God created desire in man that is honorable and not sinful. The problem is not that man has an honorable lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life; rather, it is when sin has affected these desires.
Excerpts from the sermon:
“I wanted to establish the fact that it is honorable to be natural. It is honorable to have desires. It is honorable to have ordinate desires. It is honorable to have the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, as was stated of the prophet`s wife: that we are not talking about a Bible presenting that everything that we desire is sin.”
“It`s perfectly proper to want to appeal to the pride of life in non-sinful things and in moderation, and it`s perfectly proper to have the lust of the eye. I would not advise any boy to marry any girl he had not employed the lust of the eye. I would just say if there is nothing to it, marry a telephone pole.”
“Jesus would not yield to false pride of life, false lust of the flesh, false lust of the eyes. He would not yield to it. But it would be silly to think that He was tempted if He didn`t have something in His infleshment that could be attracted to food, attracted to pride. It`s a very fine line between pride and pride. Sometimes the only thing you can salvage it, it was for dignity sake. It was for law and order sake we appeal to pride. I refuse to be an ignoramus since I`ve learned something. That`s an honorable appeal to pride, but if education makes us proud, or our little gifts infatuate us, we have abused the gift. But Adam and Eve before they fell had the honor of desire.”
“Intense desire, natural affection, ordinate affection, passionate affection has a wonderful place in our lives, and these things are part of the desire system.”
“I would not believe that when Adam fell that desires were to be equated with evil. I have seen in the providence of God some people with desires that God blessed them for having them. I really believe with all my heart that I had a desire for my wife before I was saved. Now we did not marry and I was not a Christian. I have to keep saying that. I was a Christian when we married. But it was eleven months from when I met her, when I saw her, and I have got to say, the Lord was dealing with me in the power of the Holy Spirit, and I have got to say that it was a desire that was a part of drawing me to Christ.”
“My desires for this work is to have Christian families with children growing up, loving their parents because they love God, and marry a child like that. We have had that to happen.”
“This sermon tonight—I want you to remember it—it was a sermon completely dedicated to, the title of this sermon, ‘The Honor of Desires.’ We don`t believe in the honor of petting. We don`t believe in the honor of going steady in the high school. But we believe in the honor of desires. You are going to have to go a long way to get a more affectionate couple than this president and his wife. It`s just not true that we believe that desires are evil. Somebody can`t read and hear if they come up with that.”
