Evaluating Pornography Pt. 2 W/ Piper Video

What is God’s will for my life?  Have you ever asked yourself that question? 

Typically, this question comes up when choosing between two jobs, deciding who to marry, or picking a church to attend.  But have you ever asked what God’s will is for your sex life?  Probably not.  We think we can handle that on our own.

However, while scripture may be silent on whether you should be an accountant or a banker, Scripture is absolutely clear on what is expected of you sexually.  In a word – purity.

1^st Thessalonsians 4:3-8:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.  For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.  So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

I want to talk more about what pornography is but, before I do, I want to describe who I’m aiming at.  I’d like to speak to believers.  I’m focusing on the believer for who lust, and pornography in particular, is a real temptation.  I’d like to help the person who genuinely has to put on the armor of defense when sitting alone with a computer.  The person who has trouble keeping his eyes above the neck and seems to take three steps forward and two steps back in the struggle against the flesh.  Specifically, I’d like to help the men like me.

Let me speak to you for a moment – logically.  The only reason we are breathing right now is the undeserved mercy of God.  The only reason we didn’t get in a car accident this morning, haven’t contracted cancer, and were ever born in the first place is that God sought to glorify Himself through allowing us to exist.   

And God has a request.

He requests that we abstain from sexual immorality.  That is His will and He expects us to do it.

So that settles it right?

If only it were that easy.  If only logic would settle it.  If only we could understand what would be best for us, best for our families, best for our sanctification, our relationship with Christ, and our lives in general.  If only, once we made a logical decision, we could stick with it.  But that’s not how it works. 

Lust is a sin of passion – not logic.  It doesn’t make sense to look at an arrangement of colors on a screen and turn that into an image of sexual attraction; an image so powerful that it causes us to turn our backs on our Creator and Redeemer.  An image we will never really see, never really experience, never really touch, never really love, and never derive any real, genuine pleasure from; and an image that will haunt us eternally.

As foolish as this is, our passions burn for those false images.  The image becomes an idol.  The scripture above says the power of sexual immorality is so strong that we reject God for it just like the Gentiles.  Just like the unsaved, we hold something else up above God and worship it.

This is why pornography is so dangerous.  Because, at its core, it is nothing more than the same sin mankind has committed for thousands of years.

Pornography is idolatry.

It is worshipping an image.  It is worshipping pleasure.  It is worshipping the creation rather than the Creator.  It is the practice and pleasure of the unredeemed who do not know God.

And you, a believer, are practicing idolatry?  I think idolatry is for the unredeemed.  The passage above says that practicing sexual immorality is turning your back on God.  Rejecting Him.

The believer doesn’t reject God.  The believer loves God.  The believer lays aside everything for the sake of the kingdom.  Sure, believers make mistakes and slip but addiction to pornography is not a mistake.  It is rejection of God.

God demands purity from you.  If you truly know Him, you will obey.  If you do not obey, you do not know Him.  Someone who knows Him will not reject Him. 

God demands purity from you.

JD

• Bookmark on Delicious
• Digg this
• Recommend on Facebook
• Share on Reddit
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet this

Pornography