There’s Nothing Soft About Porn
By David Moore, Pastor, Braehill Baptist Church, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Aim: To show the increase in the use of pornography world-wide, and exhort the believer to sexual and mental purity.
Text: Colossians 3:1-7
Introduction: The book of Colossians was written to a church situated in what is now modern Turkey. We are nowhere told exactly how a church came to be in this town or how the town was evangelised. Certainly it was a town that Paul had never visited, and yet, unusually he is writing to a church with which he bore no personal relation, to a people whom he never knew. For the apostle Paul to write to people he had never even met there had to be a reason, and there was. Whilst he was imprisoned in Rome, Paul received a visit from his friend and Pastor of the Colossian church Epaphras. Epaphras reported to him how new teaching was infiltrating the church and threatening to destroy her testimony and ministry. It was a heresy derived from several sources which denied the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as Head of the church. The name modern scholars give to this false teaching is Gnosticism.
Time will not permit us this evening to consider the finer points of Gnosticism, but suffice it to say that Gnostics taught that all physical matter was innately evil but the mind (or soul) was intrinsically good. In other words Gnosticism saw no relationship between body and soul, they divorced the material world from the spiritual world, and believed that however men behaved physically that had no bearing on their spiritual welfare. It was a predominant world view in the days of the early church, and as a world view it had all but died out until the mid 1960’s.
In the 1960’s the western world adopted what could only be described as a neo-gnosticism. Remember this was the hippie era, the days of flower power and free love. It was the beginning of the modern drugs culture, and the stepping stone for eastern mysticism into western society. Rejecting Christianity wholesale the hippie philosophy divorced morality from spirituality, it severed the body from the spirit, and the result was sexual promiscuity. It was called the permissive society. Today, four decades on, the western world is reaping the fruit of the permissive society - we are now living a sex mad, drug infested world. The world has changed beyond all recognition in less than half a century.
One of the great evidences of that change has been the growth and profusion of pornography in society. This evening I want to speak to you on this subject. Now I know that most preachers and most churches would rather not speak about pornography, and to be honest I would rather not speak on it either. But it is a moral and social evil that has plagued society, the church included, for the best part of half a century, and our ignoring it will not take it away. I haven’t come to the pulpit to embarrass you or to discuss anything that is in any way lewd, but I want you to see that we are facing a real moral problem today - and that God has something to say about it.
I have three points in all. Tonight we are going to examine:
I. The Spread of Pornography
III. The Saint & Pornography
IV. The Solution To Pornography.
I. The Spread of Pornography.
A. Illus: In 1997 eleven pornography enthusiasts in the U.S., backed by a civil liberties organisation, named Mainstream, sued a group of libraries for refusing to provide them with pornography.
1. Remarkably they won.
2. Now that little legal episode tells us where we have come in western society.
3. Twenty five, thirty years ago people still had a little shame about the use of pornography.
4. Pornography was not something people admitted using.
5. Those who sought it had to seek for it from “under the counter” of magazine shops, or else visit such places as Soho in London or Times Square in New York where pornographers plied their seedy trade.
6. Today, however, Soho has arrived in our living rooms.
7. From 1973 - 1999 the revenue generated by the porn industry increased 1000 fold.
a. Today pornography attracts a greater gross income than all the Hollywood movie generate in the U.S., and more than all rock music and country music recordings the world over.
b. In fact today the porn industry draws revenue of somewhere in the region of £7 billion pounds in the U.S. alone.
c. It stands to reason then that someone is buying this stuff!
B. We have to ask how did pornography make its way from the seedy side streets of London and New York into the mainstream of our lives?
1. First in the late fifties and through the sixties there was the Playboy mentality championed by the so called pop prophet Hugh Hefner.
a. Hefner riding the tide of 60’s permissiveness sought to build an empire out of promiscuity, making the bunny girl image a world wide icon.
b. His magazine, and others like it, sought to show the porn user as a sophisticate (of course he is nothing of the sort).
• In 1978 Hefner commented “I think it can be said with reasonable certainty that no other single thing in popular communication has had more influence on the changing social-sexual values in the last twenty odd years that Playboy. Without question. And its influence is far more dramatic than most people realise, especially on young people growing up, both male and female . . . Playboy is almost twenty five years old. The generation now running society is the first Playboy generation - the first to grow up with this significant influence on their lives - and their influence has been felt across society.”
2. In the 1970 the profusion of pornography in society increased.
a. This was the era of the so-called Page 3 girl.
b. Pornography had moved from the top shelf of newsagents stands into our daily newspapers.
3. In the 1980’s the world discovered the V.C.R. Video Rentals were the brainchild of the pornographers. By using the technology of the day they could place their wares into the hands of ordinary men who would never dream of endangering their lives, marriages or dignity by trawling the red light areas of London or elsewhere.
a. Now men could have their own private strip joint and view the most lewd and perverse acts in the privacy their own living room, without risk of dignity, loss of reputation or fear of discovery.
4. Then in the 1990’s came the Internet.
a. Here again the porn industry saw an opportunity for business.
b. Again they were the first to recognise the marketing potential of new technology to the extent that around half of all websites contain pornographic material.
c. About two-and-a-half-million people have access to the Internet in Britain. Specialist information providers, such as Yahoo and Alta Vista, have recently reported that more than 80 per cent of “search engines”, instructions typed on to the computer screen to access specialist material, have "some sexual link"
C. Where have we arrived at, at the beginning of the 21st century?
1. Porn has found its way into homes, by newspaper, magazines such as Loaded, FHM and Maxim, by telephone chat lines, TV, both terrestrial and satellite, and of course the Internet.
2. Are we paying the price? You bet that we are.
1. It is costing us in terms of our marriages - Don’t you imagine that the spiralling divorce rates might have any connection with the promiscuity peddled in society? ?Increasingly Relate Counsellors are reporting more ands more problems with pornography use - particularly in relation to the Internet.
2. It is costing us in terms of our children. Paedophilia is not an accident - its a symptom, and the facts are that 100% of paedophiles are pornography users.
3. It is costing us in social terms.
a. There is a correlation between crime & pornography. Particularly rape.
b. In 1979, Dr. Aaron Hass conducted a survey of young people and pornography use. The pornographers defend their trade on the basis that it is an “adult right”. In fact, having surveyed more than 600 children Hass reported that almost 100% of boys & 91% of girls had viewed a pornographic magazine. 42% of girls & 58% of boys had viewed a pornographic movie. Understand this is even before the VCR or DVD had really become a regular fixture in modern homes. This is way before the introduction of the Internet.
c. How does that relate to crime? In 1986 Michigan State identified 681 adolescent sex offenders. The average age was fourteen. His victim was likely to be around 7 years old. 56% of cases involved intercourse. Were teenagers always a threat to children in this way? No. The fact is the from the time promiscuity got a foothold in the late 1950’s up to 1979 the rate of serious crime committed by juveniles increased 11000 %.
II. The Saint & Pornography. - Colossian 2:8 & 3:1-5
A. It seems incongruous that we should place the word “saint” alongside the word “pornography.”
1. Obviously those two words do not compliment each other.
2. Yet the fact remains that in many Christian homes pornography is present.
3. We can all sit here and act like it isn’t. We can do what the church has been doing for fifty years and suggest that it is not our problem.
4. We are less honest than our ancient forefathers.
B. In Colossians 2:8 Paul says “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy ...”
1. “Beware lest any man spoil you ...”
2. “Spoil” = to lead away, to take captive, to carry away, to kidnap.
a. 2 Timothy 3:6
3. In Gk. its a very strong expression meaning “make you yourselves booty.”
4. Now this verse literally read is more defined that the English rendering would have us believe - it reads “Beware lest any man spoil you through [the] philosophy”
a. What is the philosophy spoken of? Ancient Gnosticism.
b. The philosophy that divorced the body from the soul, that separated morality from spirituality. The philosophy that says “Its only my body - its not relevant to my soul.”
5. That is the playboy philosophy, and that philosophy is captivating the hearts and minds of Christian men.
a. A recent survey conducted among conservative Christian men revealed that only half believe that sex does not necessarily have to be restricted to marriage.
b. America’s National Council for the Protection of Children & Families surveyed 5 Christian universities on this issue and discovered that 68% of male students had intentionally looked for pornography of the Internet, 10% were frequent users of porn & 5% had a problem with pornography.
c. Again, a study was conducted in the area of sexual faithfulness within marriage. Of all the groups reporting only one sexual partner in the past 12 months - Conservative Protestants came second last, rating only above those with no religious affiliation at all.
d. 41% of all men interviewed reported having done one of the following in the previous 12 months: Watching a blue movie, visiting a strip joint, purchasing sexually explicit magazines, or calling a phone sex number.
6. What is happening here? What is happening is that the modern church is buying into the worldly philosophy of neo gnosticism.
C. Turn to Colossians 3:5
1. Here we have the spiritual consequences of gnosticism. Here we see that when we divorce spirituality from morality the result is immorality - and that is what we are seeing in the church & society today.
2. Fornication (Gk. porneia): This is a general word for sexual immorality, both w/in and w/out marriage.
a. Lit. “to prostitute one’s body to the lust of another.”
3. Uncleanness: This is moral impurity in all its forms.
a. Particularly marked by a filthy mind, full of sensual and suggestive thoughts and humour.
b. It is the kind of thinking which reads illicit sex and immorality into even the most wholesome situations, and it is a lust of the heart which ultimately leads to the dishonour of the body - Rom 1:24.
c. It is the kind of indecency which provokes the imagination & stirs wrong thinking.
4. Inordinate affection: This is erotic love, depraved passion & uncontrollable desire.
a. It is the kind of so called “love” which is often expressed by homosexuals, as well as heterosexuals, which uses another person for one’s own selfish, sensual gratification.
5. Evil concupiscence: Lit a “wicked desire.” Sexual desires are normal, they are intrinsically good, after all God created us with sexual desire, but what happens when we give ourselves to evil concupiscence is that we take a basically wholesome thing and pervert it, & use it for our own ends.
6. Covetousness: The word means “to have more.” Here it is used with reference to adultery.
a. The adulterer is not satisfied with his wife, he wants more, he wants another man’s wife. God calls it idolatry.
b. When Israel worshipped idols, God labelled her as an adulterer because she wanted more than God gave her.
c. Likewise when a person wants more than the wife or the husband God has given they too are guilty of idolatry in God’s sight.
D. What are the consequences of these sins, particularly when a man indulges in the use of pornography.
1. Dependency
a. Sin, all sin is ensnaring. Pornography creates an addictions, just like alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
b. When a man is aroused all kinds of chemical signals are sent to his brain - resulting in neuro chemical addiction. The user is trapped. He is drawn to porn like a drug. He needs a fix. He gets release, and then he is satisfied until the next time. But as with most drugs, the period between use decreases, until his mind is totally consumed by it.
2. Depression.
a. As with all drugs, pornography can only offer momentary happiness.
b. Between times his spirit is darkened, his mood depressive.
c. This is because pornographic use is a lonely (God designed sex to be shared within marriage) business and the user constantly experiences shame, fear and anxiety.
3. Disillusionment
a. The real world can never live up the fantasy world. The real wife can never match the fantasy wives. The wife is a real person, who has spent all day at work helping provide for the families needs, or she has been at home with children, changing nappies, cleaning kitchens cooking meal, how can she compete with the paper dolls conjured up in photographic studios?
b. She can’t. When fantasy takes over reality the husband begins to feel he has been short-changed, that he has drawn the short straw, and he becomes disinterested in his marriage.
4. Defilement
a. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8).
b. A man who is focusing on pornographic images can hardly be obedient to this verse. He is defiling his mind, and soiling his spirit.
5. Deceit.
a. Here is a man who in effect has multiple wives, who is an serial adulterer, and an idolater, who having divorced his moral life from his spiritual life comes to church on Sunday believing he can acceptably worship God. He can’t. He has deceived himself.
b. He is living a lie. His whole life is a lie. a constant cover up. No wonder he is struggling spiritually.
c. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13).
6. Degradation
a. This man is in more danger of actually committing adultery than the man committed to purity. He is at more risk of committing a sex crime, whether it be harassment, molestation or rape, than his peer who strives for purity.
b. Sin begets sin, and pornographic use is but a stepping stone to deeper acts of depravity.
III. The Solution To Pornography.
A. I am speaking now of how you can personally beat it - not of how we can clean up the world.
1. The cleansing of the world is God’s problem and He intends to purify it someday by fire.
2. But right now we are dealing with your problem. Your sin if you are using pornography.
B. There is one word in Colossians 3 you should learn the power of - and that is the first word of verse 5 - “Mortify.”
1. In vss 1-4 Paul highlights our position in Christ and our identification with Christ.
2. In vs 5 connects the practical elements of the faith with the doctrinal elements which have gone before.
3. Notice how he makes the connection - verse 5 - “Mortify therefore ...”
a. Doctrine demands duty.
b. Creed determines conduct.
c. Facts are to be followed by acts.
4. Because we have died with Christ (verse 3) we are to mortify “therefore” the flesh.
5. Mortify = “to consider as dead, to regard as impotent.”
6. The believer cannot eradicate his sin nature, but he does have power and authority over it so he can treat it as a morally impotent force in his life.
a. Romans 6:11-18.
7. Here is the practical realisation of the doctrinal truth.
C. How do I mortify the flesh?
1. By identifying with my position in Christ.
2. By honestly confessing and forsaking my sin.
3. By staying in the Word of God and Prayer
4. By living my life as an open book.
5. By making myself accountable to a trusted friend - my wife, a brother in Christ
6. By making my will God’s will.
7. By seeking God’s means of escape when I am tempter - 1 Cor 10:13
Conclusion: Pornography is a problem. It is a social problem. It is a moral problem. It is a spiritual problem. It may well be your problem. If it is you cannot afford to ignore it. If you are struggling with it and you need a friend I put myself forward as your pastor to help you. I am not interested in judging you, or disclosing your sin to others - I want to help you. I want to pray for you. I want to counsel you and perhaps place some materials in your hands that might help you.
But mark this down, if you ignore this sin, you ignore it at your peril. Pornography is evil. “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.” (Proverbs 6:23-29). There’s nothing soft about porn!
