Danger! Quicksand Ahead!
1st Corinthians 6:13b-20
One of the things that has always amazed me about about the Bible is the ability of God’s word to speak to any need that we have. I understand of course that the Bible doesn’t tell us if we’re looking for car insurance whether you should go to Geico or State Farm, but the Bible does advise us about how to use our money wisely.
I realize that when one of your children comes home too late one night that it doesn’t tell you exactly what to say but the Bible does tell us to be good listeners, to listen more than we speak; it tells us not to provoke our children and it also reminds us of the importance of discipline.
Some of these decisions that we are called on to make as believers are what I would refer to as matters of the heart and mind. You see God gave us the wonderful gift called the mind and he gives wisdom to those who ask and He expects us to use our hearts, conduct our lives wisely and protect our hearts.
We come to the question this morning, does the Bible speak to the topic of pornography? I read this week comments from one person defending the use of pornography in his life. He had several arguments; in fact he had a fair knowledge of scripture, even breaking down some of the Greek NT and then he closed his argument by saying that these pictures we call pornography are simply a gift from God for us to enjoy.
Most of us realize just how weak these arguments are, we know the power of a healthy conscience to guide in this area but there are several things I am not sure we really comprehend.
(1) I am not sure we understand how deeply the scripture speaks to this topic.
(2) How dramatically it affects all of us. And I will explain what I mean by that today. Because this message is for all of us.
(3) How damaging the results can be.
First of all does the Bible speak to this subject? We get our word pornography from several words right out of the NT. And here they are…
• Porneia- refers to sexual immorality. Used 25 times in the NT.
• Porneuo- refers to the act of committing sexual immorality. Used 8 times in the NT.
• Porne- prostitute. Used 12 times in the NT.
• Pornos-refers to one who is sexually immoral. Used 10 times in the NT.
So this is where we get the word porn. The 2nd part of the word grapho means to write; can also mean to draw. Found 191 times in the NT. So when we put these 2 words together, that is the origin. Right out of the Greek NT.
(2) how does pornography affect us? We tend to think about pornography as something that only affects men. Not true. Two things I want to say about that. Family safe media reports that 72% of Internet porn viewers are men. 28% are women. So basically 3 out of 10 are women. Women seem to be more drawn to writing that is of a pornographic nature. The book, 50 Shades of Grey which has developed into a trilogy now is the story of a woman’s sexual affairs; never read it but I understand they are vividly described. In women’s literature Amazon has ranked it as the #2 seller in the nation. In the category of romance it is the #1 seller. The 1st book released 12 months ago has sold over 10 million copies already. Who is buying it? Women.
Now how does pornography affect our nation, our economy for instance? Pornography is a 57 billion dollar industry. 12 billion dollars in the US alone. As a whole separate category child pornography generates 3 billion dollars annually. Now this will probably surprise you. It did me. The US is not the leader in this area. As much as it is available in the US we do not rank in the top ten countries who provide this stuff on the web. But here’s the catch. We may not provide it but we sure consume it. Remember it’s the WWW. World wide web. It matters who is providing it but it also matters who is consuming it and thanks to the web it is available all over the world with one click of a mouse.
Let me give you a few figures. Revenue from pornography exceeds the combined revenue of all football, basketball and baseball franchises combined. On the web there are over 4.2 million websites. Now you may be saying but we’re not talking about Christian homes…we’re believers-we don’t participate. Family Media reports that 47% of Christian families have said that pornography is a problem in their home…a major problem.
The 3rd question…..just how damaging is it? I want us to think about it for a few moments from several angles, as to how it can damage us. (1) it will damage your mind/heart. The Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. There was a phrase used some years ago that said Garbage in, garbage out. What you put into your life is what you will get out of it. (The inflow of info will decide the outflow.)
You see the mind is like a battlefield. There are spiritual forces, Godly ones, demonic ones literally fighting for the control of the mind. Constantly. And it is a fight to the finish…literally to see who will win.
There is the legend of a conversation between an old Cherokee Indian and his grandson. One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of us. He said, my son, the battle is between two wolves inside us. One is evil-it’s anger, jealousy, greed. The other is good-it’s peace, love, hope, faith. The grandson thought about this for a while and then asked his grandfather which wolf wins. He replied the one you feed. I believe that all of us because of our sinful nature have a tendency to feed both wolves but we always, get this, always feed one more than the other.
(2) it will damage your relationship with Christ. Because we believe pornography to be a dual sin, a sin on the part of the viewer but also on the part of the provider of the view, both have sinned. According to the scripture sin has several effects on us. 1. We are blinded. John 9:41. You see our goal must be to see Christ-more clearly-every day. One day when we stand before him all of this will be clear but there is a growing process, a maturing process that must take place. Sin prevents this from happening because it blinds us to the things of God.
2. We are placed in bondage/slavery by sin. John 8:31-34. Listen, Satan has a trap prepared for all of us. He has a variety, some work in different ways but I believe that there is at least one that he as for all of us; he kind of individualizes it. This one works, this one doesn’t. And I believe that pornography is a huge trap and for some here today it is the very one that he has placed your name on. Reserved for you. God notices where awe are strong. Satan especially pays attention to where we are weak. Pornography will damage your heart/mind. Pornography will damage your relationship with Christ.
(3) It will damage, perhaps even destroy your relationship with your spouse. Let me say that I have seen very attractive women just weep over what this does to them when they discover that their spouse, boyfriend is involved with pornography. They feel degraded, used, cheap and they’re not even involved with it. They tell me the same thing…Pastor I can’t measure up to these airbrushed pictures; I will never look like that. It is demeaning to women. It is degrading and it will destroy your wife’s self image.
Now if you’re taking notes you may want to pen/pencil down and just listen for a moment.
v. 13b-14. This body we have does not even belong to us. It belongs to Him. It is temporarily on loan to us until we get a new one in the resurrection.
v. 15. Because these bodies belong to Him they are members of Christ Himself. We are one with Him. He says that if we unite with a prostitute which is what we are doing, we are then becoming one with that person.
v. 18 So what do we do? Run! Get away as fast as you can before you sink in so deep that you are stuck.
v. 19. A great price was paid for your life by Christ. He tells us this to make a simple point. This body belongs to God, it was created by God and so it is not too much to ask for us to use it to glorify Him.
In 1964 two college students decided to spend the day in South Florida when as they were walking along the bank of a small stream one of them realized that the ground was too soft and his feet sunk into the ground. He warned his friend but he kept sinking and was quickly in up to his chest. His arms were trapped and he could not move them. He looked for a branch he could extend to help him out but his friend couldn’t free him arms and he sunk deeper and deeper until he disappeared. Gone forever. It cost him his life. Don’t let it do the same to you.
