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Now, this is our series on the
truly Christian marriage, and in doing so, we are in a section
in which we've talked about God's perspective on sex, as well as
God's parameters regarding sex. And now, we want to look today
at the plague of pornography. You know, I've touched on this
briefly over the years, but I've never devoted a message specifically
to this. As you will see today, this is
a serious, serious problem. A plaguing problem. Not only
in the lives of many unbelievers, but in the lives of even many
believers in Christ. And it could be a problem in
your life. And so let me invite you to take your Bibles with
me and open them to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Now, keep in mind that in New
Testament times, they did not have televisions. They did not
have the Internet. They did not have computers.
They did not have the printing press. And therefore, they did
not have accessibility to some of the means of communication
that we have today that has created a serious problem with pornography. And yet, that is not to say that
the Word of God has nothing to say on this issue. For in Matthew
chapter 5, and what is called in chapters 5, 6, and 7, the
Sermon on the Mount, written specifically with the principles
of Christ's kingdom in view, it is kingdom oriented, it is
not directly church truth, and yet, by virtue of the fact that
it communicates transferable, permanent, biblical principles
that are true in every dispensation. There are truths that we can
draw out of the Sermon on the Mount with a church-age perspective
in order to intersect with principles that apply for us today. And
that is why the Schofield Bible indicates that while the Sermon
on the Mount sets forth the principles of Christ's kingdom and is law-oriented,
nevertheless it has moral principles that apply to us today. And we
see this in Matthew chapter 5 about the problem of unbridled sexual
lust. In Matthew chapter 5 we begin
in verse 27. The Lord Jesus is speaking and
He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old,
you shall not commit adultery. Now, this was the sixth commandment.
This was very clear. This was part of the law. They
knew this. And remember that when it comes
to the Sermon on the Mount that was spoken to the disciples,
it was set in contrast to the thinking of the Pharisees who
were big on the external but were miserable and failing on
the internal. And as a result, it says, you
shall not commit adultery. And at this point, they're all
saying, yes, yes, yes, we agree. Verse 28, but I say to you, and
the word I is emphatic in the Greek text. I as an authority,
in fact, I as the very Son of God wants to clarify this issue. But I say to you that whoever
looks at a woman to lust for her, has already committed adultery
with her in his heart. In other words, just because
you have not done the external action does not mean you haven't
committed the internal sin. Verse 29, if your right eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out. Cast it from you. For it is more
profitable for you than one of your members perish, than for
your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand
causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it
is more profitable for you than one of your members perish, than
for your whole body to be cast into hell. Now, as we begin examining this
passage of Scripture, we see The Lord Jesus in verse 28 saying,
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for
her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If you
think of this problem of unbridled lust, who does this apply to?
And the phrase that is used here is the word whoever. And in the
context, Jesus Christ is referring to a man. who looks at a woman,
though this truth is not limited to men and is actually applicable
to all. And as you see the stats on pornography,
you're going to see that there is a certain percentage of women
that struggle with this problem just like men, though the percentage
with men is much greater. A second thing we see in this
verse, 28, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman, What
bodily sense does this especially involve? The word looks refers
to the act of seeing with your eyes. It's through the eye gate that
one looks at a woman to lust after her. And that is why we even teach
the kids in vacation Bible school, be careful little eyes what you
see, because we recognize that one can be tempted via the eye
gate. Now, what is also interesting
to note is that the word looks is in the present tense. It's
speaking of something that's repeated. It's not talking about
an incidental or inadvertent glance that you just didn't really
have this thought in your mind and you just saw something, saw
a woman, maybe scantily clothed, or something popped up on your
computer. Not something you chose, in this
case. And by the way, do you have a
choice in this matter? And the answer is yes, for the word looks
is in the active voice. In this case, you chose to look. Now, we're going to address two
things when it comes to this. One, the case where you're tempted
and you weren't choosing that, but it came to you, versus what
the Lord Jesus is going to say here about you're looking because
something already has been chosen in your heart. We're going to
have to look at both sides of this issue. Now, what is the
purpose of this looking? But I say to you that whoever
looks at a woman to lust for her, And the word lust here is
the Greek word epithumeo. It means to lust or desire, and
in this context, sexually. Now, keep in mind, sexual desire
in itself is not wrong. We are made that way with hormonal
changes that happen in puberty by virtue of the fact that God
biologically wired us that way. The problem is not with having
sexual desire, but how that desire is fulfilled and handled in our
lives. Now, according to this verse,
who is the object of this looking and lust? But I say to you that
whoever looks at a woman to lust for her. Now, we also know that
in light of the perversion of our society and the degradation
that transpires when righteous standards are not upheld and
when people cave into their flesh, that we have a problem of homosexuality
and lesbianism as well, which Romans chapter 1 directly addresses
that which is unnatural, that which is not biological, that
which is behavioral, that which is sin and even deserving of
death. But in this context, he's talking
about a man looking at a woman. And what motivates this ongoing
looking and lusting at this woman? But I say to you that whoever
looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery
with her in his heart." In other words, something's already
happened in the heart that causes him to look. Now again, we recognize
it can be the other way around, as we'll see in James in a moment.
But in this case, he's looking because he's already lusting.
He's not lusting because he's looked. In other words, he goes
to the porn site because he's already lusty. He goes to the
scantily clad beach because he's already lusty. He goes into the
adult bookstore because he's already lusty. And you know what is amazing
is whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, in those days they
dressed very modestly, almost like Islamic people today, Islamic
women. There's not a lot to see. Because
they're so close. And yet, this still is an issue.
Now that is not to suggest that you shouldn't dress modestly.
You should. And you should not, women, unnecessarily
provoke men sexually by how you dress. But this is still an issue for
men, according to the Lord Jesus, even when one was dressed very
modestly. And it is particularly a man
problem, though, again, it's not limited to that. Now, what does Jesus label this
sin? I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for
her has already committed adultery. It's the aorist active indicative
of moquetto. It means to commit adultery,
in this case, by choice. It's active voice. You choose
to do this. What's really nice is as a new believer in Christ,
you do have other choices. And the Lord says, though you
actually haven't committed the act of sexual intercourse, you've
done it already in your heart, you're lusting for that reason,
you're fantasizing, you're undressing, you're involved sexually with
that individual in your mind and in your heart. And He says, That individual
has already committed adultery with her and the word already
means already or means now. This is what's motivating the
looking in this case. And let me just say that this
is a serious, serious problem in our day. Never in the history of mankind
can you, in a sense, indulge all the lusts of your flesh with
a click of a mouse, a computer mouse, and go in almost any direction
you want to go in almost any area of your life. And it's right
there in living color. Now, where did this sin originate,
does the Lord Jesus say? But I say to you that whoever
looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery
with her in his heart. That's where it originated. It's
the heart. The eyes are a factor, but the
heart is the problem. It's what the Lord Jesus would
also say in Matthew 7. It's not what goes into a man
that defiles a man. It's what comes out from the
heart. And we know according to Jeremiah
17, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know? Unless we're all born with a
sin nature and a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked,
and unfortunately when we get saved, Though we get a new nature
and we get the Holy Spirit, that sin nature is still there. And
those patterns and grooves that have been developed over time
don't immediately go away. And when we fail to walk in the
Spirit, we can go back to those very things like 2 Peter says,
a dog returning to its vomit. Now what can one do to prevent
sin? Well, address your heart and
don't make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. And
remember here in the Sermon on the Mount, being kingdom-oriented
and not church, age, grace, truth first and foremost, there's no
mention of your position in Christ. There's no mention of the power
of the Holy Spirit. There's no mention of the cross. There's
no mention of the resurrection even. This is kingdom principles. We're going to find that in the
epistles. We find the problem addressed, and we see it's a heart problem,
but we're not really going to find the solution we really need,
but we are going to see some indication of how to address
the problem as we look at verse 29. If your right eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out, cast it from you. For it is more profitable
for you than one of your members perish, then your whole body
be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes
you to sin, cut it off, cast it from you. It is more profitable
for you than one of your members perish, then your whole body
be cast into hell." In other words, what he's saying here
is take this seriously and take dramatic action that's necessary
in order to address it. Now, he's not saying literally
pluck out your eye and cut off your hand. I mean, if that was
the case and we took this literally, there'd be a lot of believers
walking around minus at least one eye. Then you could be a
left eye luster instead of a right eye. I mean, obviously that's
not what he's saying here. What he's saying here is address
your heart and don't make provision for the flesh because it's through
the eye that you, again, have that provision made. Now go with me next to the book
of James. I want to hit the other side of this for a moment. And
I look at some solution to this before we go into the stats and
such about pornography. In James chapter one. We have a little different. Issue being addressed here. The
Lord Jesus said the person was looking to lust after her because
he's already committed adultery with her. But what about the
inadvertent glance? What about the accidental? What
about when you come walking along? What about when you see someone
in some kind of situation and you're tempted? Well, in James
chapter 1, we read in verse 13, Let no one say when he is tempted,
I am tempted by God. I want you to know God never
tempts you. He tests you for good. He never
tempts you as a solicitation to evil. For God cannot be tempted
by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived,
he gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings
forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." Now he
says here, each man is tempted when he's drawn away by his own
desires and enticed. Now the idea here is of a hunting
or a fishing kind of situation. We will let this represent a
hook, you know, the end of a line, a pole here. as some of you were
involved. And no one throws out a hook
without some kind of bait on it. Well, you might. You're never
going to catch anything. You might snag something if you're
really on a good day, but you hide this with some kind of bait. And this bait is designed to
attract this fishy, you know. I never knew how to do fish.
Here, we'll go like this. This looks better. Okay. Okay. To this. And in the same way,
we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires. We're
drawn away from the outside by our own desires inside and enticed.
Now, you know, if I were to put a dollar, let's say a ten dollar
bill up on the stage right here today and walked away, some of
you wouldn't think twice. You'd never take that thing.
That just isn't your area of weakness in your flesh. You just
wouldn't do it. Or some of you, you know, you might take it before
I'm out of the door. In fact, we had a guest speaker
once here who put his wallet down on the stage and someone
stole it, right here, two or three years ago. Fortunately,
he didn't have any money in it, per se, But it happened. And in the same way, what he's
saying here is, to be tempted is not sin. Temptation yielded
to a sin. And he moves from hunting terms
into verse 15 to medical terms. When desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin. So you've got, when it comes
to conception, you've got two things going. You've got to have
an egg and you have to have a sperm. You don't have an egg and a sperm,
and guess what? You're not going to have a conception. Now sometimes
we know, in some cases, there's double eggs. You get a double
egg and you get sperm that you know that you can have twins.
And as I said before, this is the reason why Men have such
a lousy sense of direction. It's because it's a biological
thing. It takes about two million sperm to find one egg. It's just
biological. Now, it says here that when lust
hath conceived, and so you've got desire on the one hand. We'll put desire here. You have the temptation here.
You've got a temptation. It comes along and you have your
desire, or I should say your volition here. Let's just get
this right here. You've got a desire. You see
something, for example, that's tempting to you. And now you
have a choice to make. And if you yield to your flesh
and you make that choice, you've got conception. You've got the
beginning of sin. And sin, when it's finished,
brings forth death. And in this context, death It's
talking about temporal death. In other words, living a life
as a believer out of fellowship with the Lord. In some cases,
like a hell-like existence. And verse 16 says, Do not be
deceived, my beloved brethren. Literally, stop being deceived
about the effects of temptation and stop being deceived about
the effects of sin when you yield to temptation. Now, it doesn't
say that Jesus Christ is going to give you victory over temptation.
What it says is Jesus Christ is going to give you victory
over sin. Because we are still tempted. And guys are tempted
in this area. That is normal. That is not abnormal. The question is, will lust be
conceived or not? Will volition line up with desire
or not? So that sin is result. So here's
a case, a little different than the Lord Jesus' in Matthew 5,
in which the person perhaps sees something and there's some desire that's there,
but will their volition go along with it? Will they look again?
Will they yield to this? And then commit adultery. So
it can go both ways. Now go with me if you would to
Romans chapter 6. Now, it is so good to know that
as a believer in Jesus Christ, if indeed you are today, that
God is providing not only salvation from sin's penalty so that you
know you're going to heaven instead of hell, but He has provided
salvation from sin's power for you as you await the day that
one day you'll be saved from sin's very presence when you
go to be with the Lord. And in Romans chapter 6 verse
1 we read, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who
died to sin live any longer in it? We died to sin. Now death speaks of separation.
Sin here has a definite article in front of it, the sin. In other
words, we died to the sin nature. Now immediately you might ask,
well, when did I die to the sin nature? Well, verse 3 answers,
or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? Now, it's not talking
here about water baptism. It's talking about being baptized
by the Spirit into Christ. In other words, when you were
saved, the Holy Spirit took you and he crucified you with Christ. Spiritually speaking, he buried
you with Christ. And you were raised with Christ,
a new creation in Christ. What was true of Christ now has
become true of you as you are in Him. And in doing so, you
have died to sin. And you now are alive to God. Now, before you were saved, it
was the other way around. You were alive to sin and you
were dead to God. Now, what's changed? What's changed? Has sin changed? No. Has God
changed? No. What's changed? Your relationship
to God and your relationship to sin. So, verse 6 goes on to
say, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that
the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no
longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed
from, literally, the sin, the sin nature. Now, you've seen this before,
but it bears repeating. Allow this box to represent your
body. Inside of this box, there is
a soul, the real you, where there's mentality, emotion, volition,
and conscience. You also were born with a human
spirit, but the human spirit was dead, in the sense that it
was separated from God. It showed you there was a God,
but there was no plug-in, as it were, no relationship That's
why you need to be born again. You're also born with a sin nature
that naturally puts me first. And this manifests itself on
the positive side in human good, which is like a filthy rag, and
the negative side, which speaks as far as overt sins are concerned.
Before we were saved, the sin nature was our master and worked
in collusion with the world system whose God is the devil. Now, by virtue of the fact that
we were unsaved, unregenerate, we did not have the spiritual
resources nor position in Christ in order to have victory over
the world. Therefore, we were in just some
form of bondage, either to human good by way of legalism or by
way of mysticism, or we were involved in some form of license. But in every case, it's bondage
before we're saved. But by virtue of our new position
in Christ and his accomplishment on the cross when he died for
our sins as well as for our sin nature, God has provided through
the cross victory so that the cross now has separated us from
that which previously was our master. The human spirit has
been regenerated, so you're born again. You have a new nature
that has desires for God you never had before, along with
the Holy Spirit, who can not only teach you the Word of God,
show you more about Jesus Christ, and your blessings in Him, so
that you can build up divine viewpoint in your thinking to
replace the human viewpoint that's been built up. But through the
Holy Spirit, there can be the fruit of the Spirit produced
in your life, as well as divine good, things that bring honor
and glory to the Lord. As you reckon this to be true,
yield yourself to the Lord in order to obey what He says. And that's why verse 11 goes
on to say, Likewise, you also reckon yourself
to be dead indeed to literally the sin, the sin nature, but
alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, the sin nature
is still there, but you're no longer legally a slave to it.
You have a choice now. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
your new Lord. And thus you are to, verse 12,
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you
should obey it in its love." Sin wants to reign as a king
in your body. And by the way, when one is enslaved to pornography,
indeed, that is the case. The sin nature is reigning as
a king in their body. Now, the whole implication of
that statement is, one, you have a sin nature. Number two, that
sin nature wants to reign. Number three, you can allow that
to happen, though you don't need to. That is why verse 13 goes
on to say, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in the lusts. And do not present
your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present
yourself to God as being alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness to God. Why? For sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you're not under law but under grace.
And so what he's saying here is, you need to know these truths,
and this is where some believers break down, they don't know it.
Secondly, you're to reckon or believe these things to be true,
so as to yield yourself to the Lord in order for obedience to
result in your life. Now that same appeal is made
also in verse 19. It says, I speak in human terms
because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you, before
you were saved, presented your members as slaves of uncleanness
and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present
your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were,
before you were saved, slaves of the sin nature, you were free
from one thing in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then
in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death. But now, having been set free
from the sin nature due to your position in Christ, and having
become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness in the
end. Guess what? It's everlasting life. And so,
again, the appeal is made to yield. Now, go to Romans 12 for
a moment. Romans 12. And it's like Paul having addressed
in Romans 7, powerless sanctification, and Romans 8, powerful sanctification
through the Holy Spirit, picks it up in chapter 12, verse 1,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you
present, same word, same voice, same tense as Romans 6. You present your body a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. And so here we're encouraged
to present ourselves to the Lord. Now, let me just show practically
how this works. When you are tempted, immediately
you can recognize, you know, I'm dead to the sin nature. I'm
alive to God. I don't need to yield to this
temptation here. But I do not have the strength
in myself. Thank you for the cross. Thank
you that I'm reckoning myself dead to the sin nature, alive
to you right now. I'm presenting myself to you,
Lord, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and enabled by Him
to have victory here." And indeed, He gives you the victory. Now,
the Word of God comes into play in this as well. Verse 2, do
not be conformed to this world. which is constantly bombarding
you with sexual messages, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, occupying your mind with the Lord and His Word,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. And this is where the intake of the Word of God
on a regular basis, on the launching pad of your thinking, is so essential.
You're going to have victory over sin by means of the Lord. And so we see here the problem
of unbridled lust. We see the difference between
temptation and sin. And we see that for the believer,
in light of their position in Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit and the perspective and promises of the Word of God,
that we can be transformed and we can have victory over sin
in our life. Even the plague of pornography. And again, as I stated earlier,
it is a plague. What are the stats? There's more
stats here than you'll be able to write down, so you might just
want to listen closely because it is an enormous problem. Every second, 3,000. And $75 is being spent on pornography. I'm not talking about every minute,
every second. Every second, 28,258 internet
users are viewing pornography. These stats are, I think, a couple
years old. Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic
video is being created in the United States. The pornography
industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon,
eBay, Yahoo, Apple, and Netflix combined. A survey on porn use
of 1,351 pastors showed that 54% had viewed internet pornography
within the last year, and 30% of these had visited within the
last 30 days. In 2000 Christianity Today survey,
33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit website. 53% had visited such sites a
few times in the past year. And 18% visit sexually explicit
sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a
week. And so we see that this is a
widespread problem. In a survey of over 500 Christian
men at a men's retreat, over 90% admitted that they were feeling
disconnected from God because lust, porn, or fantasy had gained
a foothold in their lives. 70% of Christians admitted to
struggling with porn in their daily lives. 50% of all Christian
men and 20% of all Christian women were addicted to pornography.
Now, I understand that the word Christian might be used loosely
here, but you still see the problem. 20% of the church-going female
participants struggle with looking at pornography on an ongoing
basis. 9.4 million women access adult
websites every month. 34% of female readers of Today's
Christian Woman online newsletters admitted to intentionally accessing
internet porn in a recent poll. 29% of born-again adults in the
United States feel it is morally acceptable to view movies with
explicit sexual behavior. 57% of pastors say that addiction
to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation. Now, I'm saying all of this just
to show you this is a real, real problem. We're talking about
a plague here. And that's why I use the term
plague. In fact, Nearly 900 theaters
show X-rated films, and more than 15,000 adult bookstores
and video stores offer pornographic material outnumbering McDonald's
restaurants in the United States by a margin of at least three
to one. Each year, nearly 100 full-length pornographic films
provide estimated annual box office sales of 50 million. Approximately
70% of the pornographic magazines sold eventually end up in the
hands of minors. And about 1.2 million children
are annually exploited through child pornography and prostitution. And then some people actually
think the world's getting to be a better place to live. And
that the solution is education or something else. Now, having seen the stats, who
does it involve? This plague of Purnima, who does
it involve? I think the better question is who doesn't it involve?
Who doesn't it involve? It involves sometimes kids, teenagers,
college age, adults. It involves men and women. It involves saved and unsaved. In fact, I was at a missionary
forum in Florida two years ago. A pastor's forum put on by a
missionary organization. And one of the sessions was devoted
to the problem of pornography on the mission field. Because
missionaries out there on the field have just usually them
and their wife, maybe another couple and a computer in order
to do language translation, emails, da, da, da, da, da. And they're experiencing an increased
problem with pornography on the mission field. Well, when does
it begin? Well, oftentimes quite young
and usually for sure by college age. If you talk to men, a lot
of times they will say they were exposed quite young to this from
a brother or a friend. They went over to a friend's
house and his dad had books or films or whatever, and now it's
just using the Internet. What does it include? It usually
includes masturbation in some fashion. And that's why the passage
in Matthew is so appropriate because, again, there's an adultery
committed in the heart in this case. In fact, according to those
stats, thinking of who is affected and how early, nine out of ten
children aged between ages of eight and 16 have viewed pornography
on the Internet. 9 out of 10. 8 to 16. The average age of first internet
exposure to pornography, 11 years old. Youth with significant exposure
to sexuality in the media were shown to be significantly more
likely to have had intercourse at ages 14 to 16. From the U.S. Department of Justice, never
before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has
so much indecent and obscene material been so easily accessible
by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions. And so we see here, It's very problematic again.
How can it affect your life and marriage? How can it affect your
life and marriage? And the stuff I found was just
amazing about this. And these weren't put out by
Christian organizations usually. For example, the Family Policy
Institute of Washington. says regarding the family in
pornography, married men who are involved in pornography feel
less satisfied with their conjugal relations and less emotionally
attached to their wife. Wife's notice and are upset by
the difference. In other words, when a guy's involved in pornography,
oftentimes sexual desire is siphoned away that should be directed
towards his wife. Pornography uses a pathway to
infidelity and divorce and is frequently a major factor in
these family disasters. Now remember, this is the Family
Policy Institute of Washington. Among couples affected by one
spouse's addiction, two-thirds experience a loss of interest
in sexual intercourse. Both spouses perceive pornography
viewing as tantamount to infidelity. Pornography viewing leads to
a loss of interest in good family relations. The family Policy
Institute goes on to say about the individual in pornography,
pornography is addictive and neuroscientists are beginning
to map the biological substrate of this addiction. Users tend
to become desensitized to the type of pornography they use,
become bored with it, the flesh is never satisfied, and then
seek more perverse forms of pornography. Many view pornography regularly
have a higher tolerance for abnormal sexuality, including rape, sexual
aggression, and sexual promiscuity. Prolonged consumption of pornography
by men produces stronger notions as women, as commodities, or
as sex objects. By the way, you know when the
Lord Jesus said, whoever looks at a woman to lust after her,
You know, in so many cases, it doesn't matter who the woman
is. It's a body that the man's looking at, not the person beneath
it. And that's set forth here as well. Pornography engenders
greater sexual permissiveness, which in turn leads to greater
risk of out-of-wedlock births and STDs. These in turn lead
to still more weaknesses and debilities. Child sex offenders are more
likely to view pornography regularly or be involved in its distribution. Family Policy Institute went
on to say other effects of pornography. Many adolescents who view pornography
Initially feel ashamed. Diminish self-confidence and
sexual uncertainty, but these feelings quickly shift to unadulterated
enjoyment with regular viewing. Goes on to say the presence of
sexually oriented businesses significantly harms the surrounding
community, leading to increases in crime and decreases in property
values. It's kind of interesting, some
quotes here. Psychologist Edward Donnerstein of the University
of Wisconsin found that brief exposure to violent forms of
pornography can lead to antisocial attitudes and behavior. Male
viewers tend to be more aggressive towards women, less responsive
to pain and suffering of rape victims, and more willing to
accept various myths about rape. Dr. Dolph Zimmerman and Dr. Jennings Bryan showed that continued
exposure to pornography had serious adverse effects on beliefs about
sexuality in general and an attitude towards women in particular.
They also found that pornography desensitizes people to rape as
a criminal offense. These researchers also found
that massive exposure to pornography encourages a desire for increasingly
deviant materials, which involves violence like sadomasochism and
rape. Feminist author Diana Russell
notes in her book, Rape and Marriage, the correlation between deviant
behavior, including abuse, and pornography. She also found that
pornography leads men and women to experience conflict, suffering,
and sexual dissatisfaction. And researcher Victor Klein,
University of Utah, has documented in his research how men become
addicted to pornographic materials, begin to desire more explicit
or deviant material, and end up acting out what they have
seen. In fact, jumping ahead here,
Michigan State Police Detective Daryl Polk. found that of the
38,000 sexual assault cases in Michigan from 1956 to 1979, in
41% of the cases, pornographic material was viewed just prior
to or during the crime. This agrees with research done
by psychotherapist David Scott, who found that half the rapists
studied used pornography to arouse themselves immediately prior
to seeking out a victim. The final report of the 1986
Attorney General's Commission on Pornography lists a full chapter
of testimony from victims whose assailants had previously viewed
pornographic materials. The adverse effects ranged from
physical harm, rape, torture, murder, sexually transmitted
disease, to psychological harm, suicidal thought, fear, shame,
nightmares. How can it affect your life in
marriage? You know, dear friends, pornography attacks the dignity
of men and women, creating the image of God. It also distorts
God's gift of sex, which should be shared only within the bounds
of marriage. And it frequently promotes sexual
perversion and addiction, which is condemned by God. And it can
become very, very addicting. And you know, I've had to talk
to men over the years that have struggled with this issue. It can become an addiction. And
there's a lot of evidence to support this. And it can have
devastating effects on one's marriage and one's family. And so from this, we can see
what the problem is. We can see it's a serious problem. We can see the Bible addresses
this. We can see that there is victory
available over it. And this is where I want to end
today. in light of what we've seen.
Because to address this problem and not, again, explain the spiritual
victory available would be very problematic. How is spiritual victory possible
over this? And I've covered this recently in 1 Corinthians 6.
We looked at the carnal believer in license, point three. But
let me just touch on this again. To have spiritual victory over
sin, period, but in this sin particularly, in the context
of 1 Corinthians 6, did involve porneia, sexual sin. You need to realize your new
position or identity in Christ and that you have been legally
freed from the sin nature's right to rule and your life as you
are alive and set apart unto God in Christ. And that's what
we saw in Romans 6. And you need to go back to that
time and time again. The sin nature is there. The
world is there. But you know what? I'm a new
creation in Christ. And the cross can keep at bay
the sin nature. And only the cross. You know,
you've heard the story that inside of you, you have a white dog
and you have a black dog. And the white dog is the new nature
and the black dog is the sin nature. Which one wins? The one
you feed. Well, that's only a half truth.
Because you can try to starve that sin nature out, but I'll
tell you, it's still there. And apart from reckoning yourself
dead to sin and alive to God, you're still going to fail. Now, that's not to suggest that
you don't need to feed your mind the right things, and that's
point number B. You need to rebuff wrong perspectives in your thinking
by the regular renewing of the Word of God in your life. You know, when Nazi Germany lost
on the Russian front in World War II, it's because they got
so spread out that the Russians backtracked and cut off the food
supply, and the Russian winter did the rest. And in the same
way, when we quit feeding our souls the Word of God, when we
keep loose focus of what the Lord has done and provided for
us, We start to just fall right back, and the Russian winter
of the sin nature just seems to regain the foothold in our
life that it had. Thirdly, you need to recognize
the seriousness of sexual sin so as to flee from it by relying
on the Lord for victory. 1 Corinthians 6.18 says fleeing
sexual immorality. And you're going to need to flee
pornography. You're going to have to do what's needed. You
might have to get rid of your computer. The problem with it is that if
you get rid of your computer, you can always go to a library
and find something somewhere else or buy another one or do
something because you still have that internal problem you're
going to have to address. You need to flee from it. I'm
going to mention a couple of programs today that could help
you in that area. Furthermore, you need to remember
that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that It is only by His power that
practical victory can be enjoyed. It's not a matter of just gritting
your teeth and saying, I'm going to have to have victory over
pornography. That's not it. It's realizing, you know, I can't
have victory in myself. But I'm dead to sin and I'm alive
to God and I yield myself to Him and occupy my mind with His
Word and I know as I rely on the Lord, the power of the Holy
Spirit is there to walk in the Spirit so I won't fulfill the
lusts of the flesh. Now, sometimes you need motivation
for that. I pointed out in 1 Corinthians
6 that you need to recognize that you've been bought by the
blood of Christ, which provides for you great motivation and
impetus for a godly walk as it points you back to Calvary. Do
you not know that you've been bought at a price? Start to think
about what the Lord has done for you, what He's provided for
you, the sacrifice He has made And let the love of Christ motivate
you to live for Him who died for you. And lastly, you need
to face the reality of your sexual desires and address them through
getting married in the will of God and being sexually satisfied
in your marriage. And that's why right on the heels
of 1 Corinthians 6, it's 1 Corinthians 7 that gives those very instructions. But, you know, Romans 13 verse
14 says, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don't make
provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. And in some
practical ways, you need to put up safeguards. I mean, even alcoholics
anonymous know that if you want to have victory over drunkenness,
you don't get an apartment above a bar. And in the same way, you need
to take precautions as well. Now, what are some practical
preventers one can utilize for you or your family? Well, there
are some software programs out there to block pornography. The one
that we've had installed in our computers is called Safe Eyes. And it's kind of interesting
how a lot of these software programs all have the word eyes in there.
And it kind of reminds me of what 2 Peter 2 says about false
teachers having eyes full of adultery. Eyes again, safe eyes. But there's also one called covenant
eyes in which there's a certain amount of accountability beyond
safe eyes that a lot of people have found helpful. But you know, in doing this,
you're blocking these sites for your kids. So that they don't
inadvertently go there, or maybe intentionally go there. And by
the way, you kind of get what you pay for when it comes to
these things. And sometimes your kids are more
computer savvy than you are. You can hardly turn the thing
on while they're buzzing all over the world. But that doesn't
mean you can't find someone to help you install these programs.
You can buy these right online, usually. SafeEyes, I think, was
$50. and can be put on three computers, 50 bucks a year, and
yet it's worth the investment. And so there are some practical
things you can do as well. Now I went quickly today. You
may want to get this tape and re-listen to it again. And yet, I hope that you can
see that one, this is a serious problem. Two, it involves sexual
sin. Number three, there is spiritual
deliverance provided by God's grace. Number four, there is
some practical help available to you out there. There is great
motivation, great enablement, great power available through
the grace of God. And yet, it's something that
you must address in your life because it's not going away and
can so adversely affect you. You know, just the hearts of
some that I've dealt with over the years and the pain this can
be in their marriage. in their own lives, the plague
that it is. Oh, would to God they would avail
themselves to the grace of God. And some have, and there's been
victory by the grace of God. Let's pray. Father, thank You
again that when Christ died, He died
for every sin. And that on that cross not only
died for our sins, but the wonderful truth of identification is that
we died with him as well. so that the sin nature's right
to rule in our life has been broken. We were buried with Christ
and raised a new creation in Christ in order to walk in newness
of life to the power of the Holy Spirit in a way different than
before we were saved. And that all the assets to do
this are available to us, to be appropriated by us moment
by moment as we yield to you and walk by faith so that the
Spirit of God can produce victory in our life and obedience to
your will as a byproduct. Thank you, Father, also for 1
John 1 9, that when we do sin, you are faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness when
we confess them to you. And Father, I just pray for anyone
here who is plagued. with pornography. I pray that
you would show them that their only hope is in Christ. And in
learning the Word and appropriating these wonderful blessings in
Christ and the victory that is already ours in Him. For parents, give them much wisdom
with their children in these areas. Not only to give them
the right perspective, but also, Father, to even prevent things
unnecessarily in their life. So, Father, I just pray for this.
And thank You again, in Jesus' name, Amen.
25 - The Plague Of Pornography
Series The Truly Christian Marriage
| Sermon ID | 811141238121 |
| Duration | 56:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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