Christianity and Pornography Pt 1

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central Good Evening everyone. It is Thursday, April tenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eight eleven pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if you were to walk into church on Sunday and you had your clipboard, you know that clipboard I tell everyone to carry and go to church and ask questions and then report back to me all the answers, which no one ever does. But I keep telling people to go to church and ask questions.

0:44 But if you were to go to church on Sunday, walk in with your clipboard, and you said, Okay, what do you feel about society as a whole? Today? On this whatever it'll be April the thirteenth, whatever it'll be on Sunday. I think it's April the thirteenth, this April roll Sunday. What do you feel about society as a whole? What do you think most of the people in your church will say about society? Well, they say it's a mess, it's falling apart, it's corrupt, it's it's got all these problems. We're in trouble. I don't know how much longer we can go. I remember back in the day when things were wonderful and things were great. Everything's a problem. I'm pretty sure, pretty quickly that most of the people you ask are going to say something negative about society, and they're going to say something like, society is in a mess.

1:36 It's a mess, society is falling apart, it's corrupt, it's we've got to do something about it. I think that's the majority opinion by most Christians. I believe that's I think that's a fair assessment. I don't think i'm being I think i'm being very fair. I think I'm being fair. That's what many would say. And the other day I picked up a cop be the sort of the Lord newspaper. This is the February twenty first, twenty twenty five issue of the Sort of the Lord newspaper. And I picked it up and I ended up on page nineteen, and I see why is society such a mess? Why society?

2:19 Why is society such a mess? And I'm like, oh, this is this should be good because the sort of the Lord newspaper is going to tell me why society is in such a mess, and I made a prediction. My prediction was, I bet I'm not going to agree with what the article is going to say and the sort of the Lord newspaper. Why Because when it comes to so many issues that Christians talk about, how they diagnose the problem and the solution for the problem, I almost always disagree with. Now. I may agree, at least in part that there is a problem, but the way they diagnose it, the solution they come up for it, I'm almost always like, this is just incorrect. I completely disagree.

3:04 To give you an example, now, I'm not going to read about it. I'm not going to talk about this article. Now we're going to get back to it, but we are going to be talking about something that many would say is a problem in society, and we're going to listen to how Christian basically tries to diagnose the problem and their solution to it, and I'm going to disagree with it. Whatever this supposed issue is in society, When Christians talk about those problems and try to give a solution, inevitably I disagree. A good example just the other day we talked about fear fear right Christians talk about that society, so many people are fearful and they're filled with worry, and they're filled with anxiety. And this is a problem because fear, worry and anxiety is a sin. And how do you fix it, Well, you just stop having fear worry.

3:49 You just trust God and stop doing it. And they give you a very law based approach. And I think law is never the solution. And when it comes to the moral problems in society, Christianity loves to give law law law. They think law is the solution to everything, and I strongly disagree on that from a thilological perspective. So what we're going to do this evening is we're going to in a sense, we're going to not necessarily responding to an email, but we're gonna be We're going to be doing something inspired by an email. At six twenty eight pm Central Time this evening, I received an email with this subject line, the Tech No Sin Challenge, the techno Sin Challenge, the techno Sin Challenge. Now tech technology no Sin, So the techno Sin Challenge just the idea that this is a challenge about not sinning when it comes to the use of technology. And as soon as I'm telling well, any challenge about us not sinning is already a philologically a mess, because the reality is I don't care if I stop sinning using technology. I'm in a perpetual state of sin. Let me state it again.

5:12 This is the basic foundational principle that this podcast puts forth over and over and over that I, for some weird reason, I'm in a disagreement with all of Christianity. Here's the reality. You can say, tech, no sin challenge. We're going to challenge you not to sin using technology. But here's the reality. You can get rid of all the technology. You can smash it, you can throw it in the trash, and you know what, the reality will still be. I'm in a perpetual state of sin. Why God says be holy as He is holy. I will never be holy as God is holy. I will not be holy in my thoughts, my words, my deeds, my desires, my feelings. I'm always in a state of sin because I fall short of that clear command, be holy as He is holy, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

5:59 I will never be that. I'm in a perpetual state of sand. Love God with all your heart, mind you get the idea. I'm always in sin. So immediately when I see the tech No Sin challenge, the techno Sin challenge, I'm like, oh boy, this is going to be some challenge about me not to sin with technology. Already I'm going to be in disagreement. But let me check it out. So they gave a link, right, and someone under it said they give a link. The link takes me to sermon Audio, and there is the it's not a sermon, it's the audio of a radio program that does air on sermon Audio, right, And and the radio station that airs it is available twenty four to seven on the sermon Audio app or on the Sermon Audio website. Right.

6:43 But the person who emailed this says, I don't know what to make of this exclamation point. Okay, So they go on and say some good things. On the one hand, the guy seems to be genuinely sincere and to care about young people and not want to see them ruin their lives. You can hear how much he cares, and you know what, that's a that's a good thing to point out. I'm glad because sometimes when someone sends me something to review, I'm just gonna go in thinking, Okay, let me, I'm trying to take apart this theologically, right, I'm trying to take this apart ideologically, and I may not even be paying attention to anything like that. So I'm glad they pointed it out that and and that's great.

7:26 I mean, that's awesome that someone cares that they are sincere. But sincerity when it comes to theology becomes very irrelevant ultimately from a theological perspective. But from a personal perspective, it's great that they care and great that they're trying to do something. But on the other hand, this approach parallels what you said about things like dungeons and dragons or heavy metal. It has the same idea that the sin is outside of you and you can keep it from getting in you by following well in this case his advice, Christianity always does this. The sin is out there, you got to stop it from getting in here. And now you need my three step program, four step program, five step program. A lot of times you need to buy their book. I I was on YouTube, I don't know, watching a video. Hello, I think I was watching a video by Lacrae because La Craye is kind of responding to all of his critics that tell him he needs to repent. I think it may have been his video, but I don't know which video I was watching, but there was an ad and it was an ad about basically how you can stop looking at porn. And all you need to do is you got to go to their website. You got to give them all your personal information.

8:40 I don't know if it cost anything, and then they'll give you access to They don't just give you a link to the video. No, no, no, you got to go to a website, give them all your information, which sounds like, you know, data mining. They're trying to get all of your information so they can then sell your data. But then you can get the video and it will tell you how to stop watching porn. Right now, I've seen there's been books written about how to stop doing it, there's been videos. Everyone supposedly has the solution. What the problem continues so Christian, but the basic principle is always it's out there, here's what you need to do to stop doing it, and it's always things you need to do, which means it's very law based. So again, I just like when Christians talk about fear, they do it from a law perspective, they talk about porn from a law perspective, they talk about dungeons and dragons. Harry Potter, it's always law, law, law.

9:34 Christians think the law is the solution to anything, whatever the problem is. Just give people the law. Here's five things you need to stop doing, five things you need to start doing, and that will fix every single problem. But after two thousand years of Christianity and everybody's been given the law over and over and over, stop, don't do this, stop do this, don't do this, it still hasn't fixed anything because we're still centers that should give the church pause and go, hmm, maybe this law approach doesn't work, but it never seems to do so. But we're we're What we're going to do is we're going to listen to the audio here. And I didn't read everything in the email. I didn't read everything in the email because he goes on and he offers some very good points, and I'm very grateful that the person sent this to me. All Right, so what we're gonna do?

10:21 And I labeled this part one. And here's the reason I'm going to label this part one. And I want to make this very clear, because someone will misconstrue this is not even really about the program. We're just going to use the program to get to this deeper discussion, right, We're gonna get to this deeper discussion about law, how why it doesn't work even though Christians continue to try to sell this as a solution. And we'll talk a little bit about how Christians address the subject of pornography. But then I'm going to address it in a way that most Christians never ever ever discuss it. In fact, I even went to artificial Intelligence, gave it my idea, and it says, well, nobody in Christianity addresses the problem the way you are suggesting, so most likely nobody in Christianity will appreciate what you're trying to do. And I'm like, well, thank you so very much, Artificial Intelligence. You can take the rest of the evening off you jerk. Okay, all right, now I didn't say that, but AI is always telling me, hey, your idea may be sound, it may be good, it may be logical, it maybe iological, but nobody in Christianity is gonna want to hear it. So you just well stop wasting your time and go do something else, right, And I'm always like so so grateful, so well, So I think this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna we're gonna talk a little bit about this. We're gonna talk a little bit about this from a well, I think this is the way we'll approach it. We're gonna do this whole discussion about Christianity, and I guess pornography

11:52 is what we'll call this, but we're it's not really about pornography. We're gonna really kind of start about the law kind of Christians once again, their weird approaches to things, and then we'll be talking about pornography. But I'm gonna try to show you how Christianity gets this so wrong, because there's a there's a deeper question to pornography, then the way Christianity approaches it, there's a deeper issue then not in then I guess we'll kind of make maybe we'll put this a part of a broader series. Then we're gonna go to this article about what is wrong with society? What is wrong with society? Because this article disturbs me deeply, Right, why is society such a mess?

12:36 Because it's it's really what it says is the reason for society being in a mess is utterly frightening. It is one of the most disturbing articles I've ever read in a Sword of the Lord newspaper. I even gave it to artificial intelligence, and artificial intelligence was like, is this serious? Is this a joke? Because this is crazy? This is crazy, all right, So we'll get to that. So maybe we'll put these all together. But it'll also be very much in connection with our law on Gospel discussions. So everything kind of starts fitting fitting together. Yeah, this kind of fits together with our Salem series, the Satanic Panic, the Slayer album, the Fear a discussion, the long Gospel Bible study. It all kind of fits together. And a lot of times that's just what happens. Things start kind of having connection. But are you ready to do this?

13:27 So this was uploaded on sermonadio. I don't know the date. It was a maybe a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week ago, and they did a program and this is from like cross talk is I think the name of the program. I'm gonna play the intro so you'll get all the information, but the name of the message is are the broadcast is the tech No? The tech no? Sin Challenge, the Tech No Sin Challenge, clever title. Here we go. We're gonna listen to this, and again, it's not about this. Everybody's gonna be like, ooh, I'm not criticized. All I'm doing is taking what they're saying, and we're like, okay, this is the typical Christian approach. There's not gonna be anything very too unique about this. When you strip down, they may dress it up differently, but when he gets down to it, I guarantee you it's going to be don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. Stop stop, stop, stop, and then they're going to give you all these little techniques to stop. But that, to me is the Christian approach to every just stop it. Just don't remember these fifteen rules. And Christianity doesn't figure it out, it doesn't work.

14:33 Israel had all the roles in the world, and they send and send and send and send and continue to sin and sin and sin. And that's why they needed a new covenant, because someone who is going to have to come who did not sin to pay for the sins of all of us who continue to sin. And to die so that his perfect obedience could be imputed to my account, because I'm going to continue to sin no matter how many laws you give me, because I'll never be able to keep the law. I know that blows away everything Christianity teaches, but it's just theological fact and only theological fact. It's reality. But here we go. Are you ready? Let's jump into this. I want to how far we're going to get. All I care about tonight is I'm going to try to demonstrate to you that the law doesn't work as the cure for all the moral problems that Christians thinks that it fix. It never was designed to fix it. Right here we go.

15:38 Vc WHY America that presents cross Talk, a nationwide calling program discussing issues that have an effect on our families, our communities, our churches, our nation, and our world. Cross Talk an opportunity for you to voice your concerns for biblical principles and now live by satellite and around the world on the Internet at Vcwyamerica dot org. Here is today's cross and. Thank you for. Now. I just want to jump right in there. Vc WHY. That's the Christian radio station and it is available twenty four to seven on the Sermon Audio app or the Sermon Audio website. You can just look for radio. You'll see the Sermon Audio Radio and you'll see VC Why America and you can listen to it. It's on twenty four to seven. And if you're ever up late at night you can't sleep. VC Why America has kind of an overnight overnight program that's really really good to listen to if you want some kind of something spiritual to listen to overnight. But during the day they air this cross talk program well, and they typically are dealing with issues in the culture, things that concern Christians, things that may be wrong in the culture. And I think, inevitably, just like all Christian programs that's been doing this since I became a Christian, the solution tends to always be it's either political culture, war, law, and then it's from a thiological perspective. They may maybe calling for some kind of civil law, but almost inevitably, from a thiological perspective,

17:08 it becomes about law law. It's not a gospel approach almost ever, because the evangelical world has thrown out a proper law gospel distinction. But here we go, joining us on crosstalk here on VCY America, Ladies and gentlemen. Technology is on the increase, and it's development well, we can hardly keep up with it. And with the proliferation of technology also comes increase access to websites and pop ups and ads that are designed to lure and to derail individuals from living a life of purity. I was looking at some information earlier today, and according to Life Plan, we live in a pornified culture.

17:49 Now, please note it's the pop ups, it's the ads that try to lure us away from purity, tries to lure us away. So it's like we all are pure, but then there's these things that lures away from purity. I will argue, we're never pure because we're in a perpetual state of sin. So already I'm in disagreement. Nothing lures me away from purity because I'm in a perpetual state of sin twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, because I do not love God with all my heart, my body, and so I do not love my neighbor as myself. I do not love my enemy. I am not holy as God as holy. I can go on and on and on and on, and on and on, and where does this impurity? Where does this sin arise from? It doesn't arise from a pop up, It doesn't arise from it from an ad. It doesn't arise from the fortification of the culture. It arises because sin is it might. It's inside of me. It's who I am, Ladies and jail. If someone says, who are you a sinner? Who are you a sinner? That's what you are, at your very core, your very essence, your very nature. You are a sin. And that nature pollutes every part of you. So you're not lured away by that which is external. You're already lured away by that which is internal. The reason the external has any power at all is because of what's inside of you. Inside of you already wants, it desires, it thinks, it craves, it all those things, so already. I think Christianity always

19:22 has this completely backwards. In fact, I will argue from a thiological perspective, the reason Christianity gets this always backwards is every Christianity at large is practically and functionally Pallagious. They're Pallagians, they believe in Pallagianism. But Pelagius's entire understanding of humanity. Pelagius was condemned as a heretic in the early Church. But Pelagius one because everyone's operating basically from this idea that we're good on the inside, we're pure, we're innocent. It's the bad people. It's those bad people and the bad stuff that they try to sell us. Well, they wouldn't be selling anything to us because we wouldn't be buying if we were so pure in the inside. Okay, it doesn't work. It's like the best example I can give.

20:10 I have literally zero, no, zero desire for alcohol. There's none, and there's nothing inside me that wants it, that desires it, or even likes it. So you can give me nine hundred and fifty seven alcohol commercials. You can give me beer commercials, wine, hard liquor, whiskey, tequila, whatever, whatever, a drink out there, rum, it doesn't matter. I'm like, great commercial. If it's funny, wonderful, I'll laugh. If it's interesting, great, if it's heartwarming, Okay, like the horses carrying, the pulling, the said the Budweiser, uh whatever whatever that the horses. I don't know all the different things in the beer commercials, but I may, oh, look that's beautiful. It's got the holiday music, and they're pulling the wagon okay, and they're bringing beer to the town near you're whatever they're doing, Okay.

20:59 The point is it doesn't have any impact on me at all, because I don't care. There's nothing that even remotely has any impact on me. Right, And that's how it works, because there's going to be something in me for something to lure me to it. It doesn't put the desire in me. There's going to be something in me that wants it. That's typically the way it works, all right. But let's so already you can see. I believe that this is a pelagious idea, Pelagian idea that hey, you're basically pure and innocent, and this stuff lures you away from your purity. You don't have any purity, you're a sinner.

21:42 The report that more people view internet pornography every month than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. All right, so more people view porn than Netflix, Twitter. I can't remember the third thing. I'll back it up here in a minute. So now here's the thing, all right, So basically everyone's watching porn. They watch porn more than Netflix. They watch porn more than Twitter, which is now X they they, they're all. So everybody's looking at porn all right? Now? Is everybody looking at porn because the desire for porn was put in us by an external, external source? Or is everyone looking at porn because there's something in us that wants and desires it. See, that's the deeper question that Christianity never seems to want to address. And it goes beyond just a sinful nature. It goes beyond that.

22:39 I mean, yeah, but let me let me back this up. Let me back this up. Okay, here we. Go individuals from living a life of purity. I was looking at some information earlier today, and according to Life Plan, we live in a pornified culture. They report that more people view internet pornography every month and Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. Okay, so people look at porn more than Netflix, Amazon, and X or Twitter combined. You take all the views of Amazon dot Com, X and Netflix and more people are looking at porn. Now. I don't know where that statistic comes from. I don't know, uh, I think they said so. I don't know what it's based off of, but let's just say it's true. Now, what's the issue.

23:32 See now what some people say, well, the issue is we got to stop looking at porn. To me, that's not the issue. The issue is why what is inside of people that desires it, that wants it, and it goes It's not everybody wants to just go well because it's sin. It's sin, it's satan, it's the devil. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. It goes to something deeper. There is something deep inside of us that people want, that people need, that people desire. There's a biological component, there's a psychological component there, there's an emotional components. It goes much much deeper, and anyone who wants to dig into it and study it, you can find all of the discussions in literature about it.

24:17 It goes much much deeper than that. It's not so simple as just saying stop doing it, it's sin. It goes so much deeper, and nobody ever wants to address that from a biblical perspective. See, they're giving you these numbers. This is where you start with kind of like, you know, the panic, Oh my goodness, everyone's looking a porn. Society is crumbling. What are we going to do. What are we going to do? So they're gonna give you the panic, right, you gotta you always have to instill the panic. There's witches in Salem. Oh Satan is in the music. You've got to everyone's left. We've been pornified. There's pornification of America. We're all in trouble. Okay, what are we gonna do?

24:57 Because that means my kids, my husband, my wife, my daughter, my son, my pastor, my deacon, my older my postman, everyone, my doctor. Everyone. Now I'm not saying that they are screaming that, but it's already. By giving you a shocking number like that, you're already like, whoa, that's a lot of porn. That's a crazy amount of porn. In twenty sixteen, people watch four point six billion hours of pornography at just one of the more than forty two million pornographic websites. That's equivalent of five hundred and twenty four thousand years spent watching porn in a single year.

25:45 See, these numbers are just staggering. Billions of hours watching porn on one site. On one site, it's a lot of porn. Some people watching a lot of porn. What are we going to do about this? What are we gonna do? This is crazy? What is going on? What's happening? The Psalmus wrote, as recorded in Psalm one oh one, verse three, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. Well, our guest today is issuing a warning about technology and is encouraging individuals to take the techno Sin challenge. Joining us today, we welcome Gary Becker. He is director of technosin dot Org. There an organization that's committed to point to each eternal soul to the Cross of Christ, to point people to the holy character of Christ, particularly in our digital world, and to get people established in Bible teaching churches. Gary, thank you so much for joining us today.

26:48 It's good to be with you. Jim Well, Gary, I met you here this past week at the Men for Christ conference that was taking place, and I know you're very impassioned and concerned about where we are at in technology, the lure that is there, the impact that it's having on it. But when we first talk about technology, we can't escape it. It's actually everywhere, isn't it. It is coming at us from more screens on the planet than people on the planet. Yeah. Yeah, Now, just make sure we understand the way you're hearing this, it's through technology. Okay. The way this is being broadcast is through technology. The way you would download it is through technology. So let's just make it very clear. Okay, they're using technology. I'm not saying that they're against technology. I just want to make it very clear that technology is we're actually using it right now. Okay, And just note that the first verse quote is is one oh one three. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. All right, So the idea is this is the Sawi thing. I will set no wicked thing. Now we can get into a major discussion about it, because these are typically the psalmist. It's like a prayer. It's like expressing a desire what they want to happen. But this will be. This will be. Then typically by pastors, it's turned into a law. Do not set any wicked thing before your eyes. Do not do it. Don't look at wicked things, don't look at wicked things. Stop looking

28:21 at wicked things. And that's great. You can rip out your eyes and you'll never look at another wicked thing. The only problem is the wickedness that you can never stop looking at, is the wickedness inside of you. I know Christianity doesn't like this truth, but it's literally the biblical truth. Jesus himself says, it's adultery, fornication comes from within the heart. You can stop looking at wickedness, but the wickedness resides in you. Right, That's that's a foundational truth. We'll get into that a little bit more. But let's see where they're gonna go. We're just going to go a little ways because I again, for this episode, I just want us to talk about the law. I want to talk about the law because this is already you can tell this has already had it in a law based way, and the program almost everything is law based.

29:17 In fact, what I'll do in a minute, I gave the transcript. I gave the transcript of this program to AI and said, AI, look at this and tell me if it gives a law based perspective. And AI broke it all down. So in a minute, I'll just I'll kind of go through what AI has to say about this instead of us listening and trying to review fifty one minutes of audio. But I'll let you hear a little bit of it. You know, you served in the pastor for several years, and you're engaged, have been engaged in ministry for many How have you been seeing technology derail or even take individuals captive. It's been like the apostle Paul walking into the city of Athens and finding the whole city given over to idolatry, and two thousand years later we find everyone bowed down to a smartphone, everyone looking down. Yeah, we'll call it worship.

30:10 Every platform is out to addict everyone, even the good ones, but especially the bad ones, trying to addict and pull back. From the gaming platforms to the social media, to the news outlets, everything bent for a return to addict and to control the eyes. Yeah, and you mentioned that, which is just drawing people in social media. I mean, that's just constant. The gaming platforms reveal to us, real to parents who perhaps they're saying, that's not part of what I look at at social media, but no doubt their young people are. What is happening on those gaming platforms today.

30:52 Well, the attention span is shrinking down to a few second clips. Okay, I just have to laugh, and I'm not trying to be mean. I understand that they're being sincere, but I have to laugh. So first he goes back to the Bible and talks about idolatry everywhere. Well, and we kind of got this thing thing going on today because nothing ever changes. That's the point, nothing ever changes, because the problem is it it doesn't matter if it's a gold statue, it doesn't matter. If it's an Atari system, it doesn't matter. If it was MTV, it doesn't matter if it was a comic book in the nineteen fifties, there's all. It doesn't matter if it's playing cards, if it's the theater, if it's the opera. Christians are always like, these are the things that are destroying us. Look, we're all turning into false worshipers there. We're always something that we're yelling about that that's happening, and so what's going on? Oh, these things are destroying the attention span. I heard this in the nineteen eighties, like MTV's destroying the attention span.

31:50 We're always screaming that something is doing something and it's breaking us and it's destroying us, and it's the head and what are we going to do now? I'm not saying they've gone to full blown pan but they're clearly all these numbers about pornography. Oh no, okay, now what's happening on these gaming programs? Okay, our platforms. So everything's going to be like, there's the problem, there's the problem, there's the problem. Okay. We can agree on the problem or disagree in the problem. The issue is what's going to be the solution. And if it's not short enough, it's too short. Okay, it's never too short to grab those eyes. And I think of a verse about how the eyes of a man are never full. If I were Satan's salesman, I would come up with something that you could never fill up, and it would just be a return sale item again and again. Our eyes, coming from a heart that needs help, is never full until it's filled with God.

32:53 And oh now I love that he did mention the heart, But just now, the heart is never full right until it gets God. Is the heart with God full? Come on? Are you completely satisfied? Are you completely content in your life? You've got God? Are you completely content? Does God give you complete contentment? Now people will say yes, I'm completely content as they are sitting on their nice couch listening on their one thousand dollars phone or five hundred dollars phone, looking at their you know, four thousand dollars television and they're you know, three hundred thousand dollars home, or even even if the home is cheap, or the point is, they got their home, they got their they got the things they like, they've got the things that their hobbies, they've got the think that they've got their wife. They've got their husband, and they've got their this, and they got family, and they got this. But my heart is full of God and I've got everything. No, no, no, no no. You want to know if you'll be content with God? And God is the thing that will give you contentment. Get rid of everything else nothing nothing, no family, no, no intimacy, no connection. Not just be alone. Just be alone, nothing, nothing, nothing, and then tell me how how content you are. See, Christianity loves to say the heart will never be satisfied until it gets God, and then it will be satisfied.

34:20 Then you will find satisfaction. Well, then all these people have God seem to also have a whole lot of other things. And in interesting that even the church, where it's supposed to be about God. But they got to give you why pot luck and this and this activity and this activity and this activity and this group and this and we got to be in small groups so we can build relationships. And we need this and we need this and we got to have this. We wh wha, wha, wha, whoa whoah. I thought all we needed was God. Come on, Oh we need all we need is God. We don't need anything, we don't need anybody. We should be me, myself and I plus God, perfect satisfied, perfect contentment. So Christianity always preaches that, hey, we'll never going to be satisfied until we get God. Well, if we get God and then we're fully satisfied, well then why why does so many Christians look at porn? Why does so many Christian marriages end up in divorce? Why is there discontentment?

35:22 Just think of how much frustration and irritation shows up in your life on a daily basis because things don't go your way. You should be completely satisfied no matter what happens. No matter what happens, your husband shouldn't be able to do anything to mess up your satisfaction and contentment. Because you have God, you should be completely satisfied. Typically our frustration, irritation and anger and fighting is because we're not satisfied, We're not happy with the way something goes. So there's a sermon that was preached today that was uploaded the Cermonadia website about spiritual satisfaction. I want to hear what they have to say, but let's continue. Let's continue filled. With the Holy Spirit. And so that's the key to the whole ministry, and I'd love to share about how it's started. Yeah, what God is doing in it, and.

36:10 Yes, heart, we're certainly going to do that. But I also want to point this out. People will think no one is harmed, and you know, pornography won't impact me. These gaming sites are not going to impact me. Social media and the things that happen in there. But you point out that once you see something you can't unsee it. Would you comment on that? Well, for time's sake, since we're already at thirty six minutes, and I still want you to go find it's called the Techno Sin Challenge. It's on the Cermonaudio app. Download it. I want you to listen to everything they have to say, but I'm going to kind of transition a little bit here, right, because I want to kind of get to the main point I want to focus on in this particular episode, So I gave AI the entire transcript. This is what AI said, based on a close reading of the cross talk with gar Marry Becker transcript you provided. Law based solutions are introduced almost immediately and repeated constantly throughout the program.

37:08 Here's a breakdown of how quickly, how often, and how exclusively law is used as a response to the problem of pornography and digital sin. Number one, How quickly is this law introduced as a solution. Within the first two to three minutes law is introduced. Psalm one O one three is quoted, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. That verse becomes the foundational slogan for the entire program. From that point forward, the discussion is framed entirely in terms of avoiding wickedness, choosing purity, resisting temptation, all law, with no explanation of grace, justification or the Gospel as the foundation. This sets the tone. Sin is something you avoid by effort, vigilance, and behavior. The solution is to obey commands more fervently. Just obey, Okay, God's holiness is something you must live up to with right choices, almost implying that with the right choices you can be holy.

38:03 With the right choices, you can get to purity. How often does the law reappear throughout the entire transcript? Law based solutions dominate nearly every segment. Here are the most repeated themes behavioral modification and external accountability. Stickers on phones to remind you not to sin. Put a sticker on your phone telling you not to look at wicked things not to sin. Sledgehammers and marshmallows as visual object lessons to show you how to destroy or fix a phone. Phrases like you don't have to go to prison. You can fix this with a marshmallow. And I don't know exactly what the marshmallow things are. Maybe we'll get at some point we'll be able to review all of this.

38:44 These are not gospel solutions. They are moral behavioral techniques law repackaged as visual theater, moral challenges, and personal responsibility. Tech yes, sin, no, Jesus, yes, wasting life No, that's kind of the way it goes tech. Yes, tech is good. Sin no Jesus, yes, wasting your life? No, you have to make the right choice. Dedicate your phone to God. Don't click. Think before you click, think before you drink. A kind of concept just say no. From the eighties and the War on drugs. Every one of these statements is a command, imperative, not indicative. They tell you what to do, not what God has done for you. Repeated warnings of consequences. Every click leaves a footprint. God sees everything you do. You could end up in federal prison.

39:38 You're one click away from destroying your life. I can fix this before I have to fix your marriage. Fear is used to motivate purity, which is a hallmark of law based preaching. Old Testament legal citations, constant appeals to Psalm one oh one, verse three in Matthew eighteen nine through ten. Plucking out your eyes never expounded in Gospel terms, always applied as direct command for behavioral correction. Is the Gospel ever clearly presented. And then it goes on to say, but the bottom line is it's law, law, law, law, law, law, law. We'll listen to just a little bit more to see if we get to the law portion, or at least to some more discussion, and then what I want you to do is what I'm going to try to do to end this for this episode, and we're going to continue to work on this as I want to try to demonstrate to you that law is not the solution, never has been, never will be. But we'll listen to just a little bit.

40:32 More until it touches your home, until it touches your heart closely. Maybe that's someone on that internet and that picture is smiling on camera. Maybe there's a gun pointed off camera in human trafficking. That's someone's daughter, that's someone's child. And the Bible speaks of this powerful problem of our eyes. If fine, I offend thee pluck it out, Jesus said. And the very next verse which hit me strongly in Matthew chapter eighteen, was take heed that you despise not one of these little ones, for I stand to you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my father. And that never hit me related to this eye problem. But it's the next verse, verse ten in Matthew eighteen, about how God tears for how we raise and point the next generation.

41:31 Yeah, so I'd like you to just you know, share your passion. Gary, tell us about your ministry. How this. Okay, So immediately goes to basically law, just giving us verses to try to convince us not to do anything. These are law, all right. So here's the thing, all right, this is central to a proper law gospel theology. If you're ever going to have a proper law gospel theology. There was a central concept and it goes straight to Paul's teaching in Romans and Galatians. So I'm going to try to give you a somewhat detailed, structured outline of the philological and biblical arguments that the law does not stop sin. It exposes it, it provokes it, it entices it.

42:21 It was never given to eliminate sin, but to reveal it and drive us to grace. I know this goes against almost every Christian teaching, but it's literally historical, at least Reformation Christianity. Coming from Luther, this is very found. I think it comes all the way from the apostle Paul, who was the one who really promoted this in Romans and Galatians. Let me state it again, the law does not stop sin. It exposes it, It provokes it, it entices it. It was never given to eliminate sin, but to reveal it and drive us to grace. So let's go through this first. The misunderstanding of law. Let's start with the misunderstanding of law. All right, I'm gonna kind of give you a basic If we're gonna look at the misunderstanding of law, then we're gonna try to look at law's purpose, and then we're gonna look at the law what the outlaw actually does, and then we'll look at theilological reasons and then yeah, we'll just kind of work through this outline. I could. I could break down the entire outline, but it will take If I try to give you the entire outline, that'll take most of the time.

43:32 So we're just gonna just work through it in real time. I think that's the best way. Instead of trying to give you the outline then going back through it, we'll just go through it in real time, all right. So here we go Number one, the misunderstanding of law. The misunderstanding of law. The common assumption, if we give people rules, if we give people laws, if we give people commands, they will stop sinning. That's the basic idea, even if Christians don't necessarily want to say it that way. It's the assumption, hey, hey, hey, hey, if it's a youth rally, just don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. And there's always all these steps. Okay, oh, if it's pornography, you need accountability, you need a filter, you need to smash your phone, you may need to do this, you may do this, you may to do and it's always like a list of things to do. And I mean, there's already theological problems with this, but it's always very law based. The Biblical truth is the law reveals sin, it cannot and does not remove it. And I think some of the key texts we can look at I'm not going to read them all right now, but you can look at Romans three, Romans five, Romans seven, and Galatians three, and we'll be making references to passages in those sections of scripture.

44:53 So the misunderstanding is that, hey, law, what can fix it? You just need laws, you just need rules, and then you'll stop sinning. But it doesn't work that way, all right, So that's the misunderstanding. Next, let's look at the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is not moral reform. But revelation. Let's state it that way. The purpose of the law is not moral reformation. It's not moral reform. It's not to reform us. It's not designed for behavioral modification. It is revelation. It is revealing something. Right, for example, look at Romans. I believe chapter three. I'm gonna try to look at some of these passages, but I'm going to be kind of just trying to give you the basic concepts here. All right, Romans Chapter three, verse twenty. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in a site. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. The purpose of the law is not reform. It's not to ref for you.

46:00 It's not to not for behavioral modification. It's to reveal something. It is revelation. Romans three twenty. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law is a mirror. It's not a bar of soap. It's not soap. It's not to clean you. It's it's to reveal. It's to show you. It was given to show sin, not to win power righteousness. It diagnosed it. It will give you the diagnoses. It does not heal you. The law was designed to reveal something, not to heal you, not to modify your behavior. And it's a mirror saying, hey, this is how you come to know what sin is? As it says again, it is by the law. Is the knowledge of sin. The purpose of the law is revelation, not reforming you, not behavioral modification. You have to get this down because almost church after church seems to completely misunderstand this. Go to Romans chapter seven. Romans Chapter seven, Romans chapter seven, Verse seven.

47:15 What shall we say, then, is the law sin God forbid nay? I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. Paul uses the example of coveting. He did not know what it was until the law said do not covet. But once he knew, it didn't help him stop coveting. It made it worse. The law is it's to reveal, it's revelation. It's not for moral reform. So what's the purpose of the law to reveal? Right through the law comes the knowledge of sin. If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin Romans three twenty, Romans seven seven. And if I said revelation like the Book of Revelation, I apologize. I think I said it correctly.

48:03 That the law's purpose is not reform, it's revelation. But the scriptures are Romans three twenty, not Revelation three twenty. Romans three twenty and Roman seven seven. Right, So you've got to you've got to understand that, all right, the law's purpose is to it's to reveal something. It's to reveal sin. Right, the law, actually this is important, provokes sin Romans seven eight. But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. Concupiscence what a word? Right?

48:45 For without the law, sin was dead. So let me read it from a different translation. But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of coveteousness. Sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of conveteousness, concupiscence, it lust, desire. The law arouses sinful desires. The moment something is forbidden, the sinful heart wants it more. The law actually provokes sin. The law was not given to reform you or to clean you.

49:30 It was to reveal its revelation, and it actually provokes sin. Now I know this goes against everything, because most all youth programs are law based. Kids don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. And all you're doing is given them law. And all law does is provoke the very thing you don't want them to do. Because sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of coveteousness or concupiscences it. It provokes it, it creates it, it entices it. People constantly forget that.

50:11 Romans seven eleven, Romans Chapter seven, verse eleven. For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceive me, and by it slew me. Sin taking occasion by the commandment, we could read it this way. For sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it killed me. The commandment becomes a tool for sin to use against us. The law becomes the occasion for rebellion, not because the law is evil, but because we are I want you to see that sin actually provokes sin. It actually it will seize the opportunity through the commandment to deceive me and to kill me. That's what the law does. That's what sin through the law. You take sin, you take the law. This is the things that happen. The commandment becomes a tool for sin to use against us. I want you to hear that the commandment itself becomes a tool for sin to use against you. Sin uses the commandment against you, Romans five twenty. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. The law actually multiplies sin, not because it is flawed, but because sinful people react to it

51:41 and rebellion. All of these verses are telling you what the law actually does, and it's all negative things. There's nothing positive coming from it in this sense that there's a negative aspect to what it does because we are sinful. So the law actually provokes sin. Its purpose is revelation to reveal, and then it provokes sin. Now, what are the piological reason fallen? Human nature rebels against the law Romans eight seven Romans eight seven. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

52:27 Indeed it cannot. The law demands submission, the flesh is incapable of submitting to it. Therefore, giving more law to the flesh strengthens resistance, not obedience. You can give all the law you want, it's only going to strength the resistance, not obedience. First Corinthians fifteen fifty six says, the power of sin is the law. I'm going to look at that in the King James one Corinthians fifteen fifty six. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of the sin is law. The strength of the sin is law, or the power of sin is the law. This is a shocking phrase. The law, which is holy and good, becomes the very thing sin uses to gain strength. The more we rely on law for moral improvement, the more we empower sins grip. The power of the sin is the law. The more we rely on law for moral improvement, the more we empower sins grip. Next, the law was never given to empower righteousness. The law was never given to empower righteousness. Galatians three twenty one. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. Paul says, clearly, no law has ever existed that could give life. The law was never intended to make sinners holy. It was given to shut us up under sin as Galatians three twenty one.

53:52 Let me read it again from the read it from the King James, as well as what the translation I just read from Galatians three twenty or three twenty one Galatians three twenty one. It is it is the law then, against the promises of God. God forbid. For if it had been a law given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law. See if law could have actually given life, then rightchlessness should be a by the law. But no righteousness comes by the law. It does not give life. The law kills. The law kills us. It does not give us life. Galatians three nineteen. Why then, the law it was added because of transgressions.

54:35 The law was added after the promise to highlight and intensify sin, not to resolve it. Galatians three twenty four. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Its ultimate function drives us to despair of self and faith in Christ. It's the road that leads to grace, not the engine of transformation. Let me state that again. The law is the road that it leads to grace. It's not the engine of transformation. The law does not transform. The law does not change. It only reveals. It kills, It entices, it provokes, It brings forth more sin. The law cannot transform the heart Hebrews ten to one. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, it can never make perfect those who draw near. The law deals in shadows, not substance. It cannot reach into the inner man and renew him. It convicts, it condemns, it instructs, but it never transforms. Tewod Corinthians three six through nine. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. The law is a ministry of death and condemnation.

55:47 The letter kills, the law kills. So what happens when we misuse the law we get legalism. Trying to use the law to produce righteousness leads to either pride or moralism. It reduces Christianity to behavior management instead of union with Christ. Shame cycles when people inevitably fail the law, which they will, and they do, they spiral into guilt and hide from God or hypocrisy. You try to produce some form of outward purity while you still have the same inward corruption, and you become nothing more than whitewashed tombs. The Law is holy, just and good, but it was never given to stop sin. It reveals, provokes, and condemns sin so that we might see our need for a savior. Only the Gospel. Only grace, through the only grace in Christ, ultimately has the power to free us from sin. And it only frees us from sin. Positionally, it does not free us from sin practically, you say no, no, no, it frees us from sin. Practically. You can try to argue that it freed you from sin A or sin B.

57:01 But you're not free from sin because if you're free from sin, you could be perfect. But since you're not perfect, you're not free because the very thing that keeps you from perfection is obviously you're not free from You're in bondage too, So what is keeping you from getting to perfection a sin nature, So guess what, You're not free from sin only positionally. So Christianity's entire approach is law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law, law. Two thousand years of that sin, sin, sin, sin, sins and sin, sin, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, and failure. Because it was never meant to give us anything.

57:48 The only way law is success. You know when law has done its job and it's successful is when you end up at the foot of the cross saying you know what I can't, never can, never will be able to. I trust in you and your finished work, and then the righteousness of Christ as it credited to your account. And then you stand up declared to be perfect and holy and righteous and obedience, even though you never will be practically and you never will be practically well. I can never have victory over anything, or you can have victory over certain things. Yeah you can. Lost people can have victory over certain things. Lost people stop doing drugs, lost people stop drinking, lost people lose weight, lost people build muscle mass. Lost people can can improve their life.

58:31 Fix this, change this. People and all kinds of religions do that. Muslims do it, Mormons do it, jo Always, Witnesses do it, Catholics do it, Buddhists. All kinds of people can can radically transform I mean, every religion, as the story of my life was so transformed. Everyone can do that. People can do it through counseling, through all kinds of things. They all people find all kinds of things. This is what I was and this is what I am. I mean, everything sells it that way. Christianity tries to sell itself on this practical transation. You can pick areas of practical transformation and you can brag about it. You can put on your robe with self righteousness, but all you really are is a whitewashed tomb because on the inside you got the same corruption that's always been there, because that corruption never goes away, because your sin nature never goes away. So GISs what. You can pretend, and you can pretend, and you can pretend, but inside is sin sin. You may have stopped sin a but you're still in sin. You may have stopped a sin, but you are in sin because you never holy as God is holy. You never love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. You never love your enemy, you never love your neighborrasures. I can go on and on and on and on and on. So you're in a perpetual state of sin. Now you say, well, so I shouldn't care.

59:42 I'm not saying that. Say we have to start with this fundamental principle that when we give these law based approaches, Hey, don't do this, stop doing this, do this, do this, do this, do this, law law, law, law, law. It's always about the imperative right. Do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. Here's this technique. Here's a sticker to put on your phone. Smash the phone. Do this, do this, do this. You can do all of those things. You're still a sinner, and you're still going to sin. And who knows, even if you just think, even if you never look at porn, I know this is a shock. Go through the Book of Genesis. I've got a list here of every sexual sin that happens in the Book of Genesis. There's a lot. All of it happened before pornography.

1:00:35 Oh how did that happen? Because it's inside of us. You may never look at porn, you can still have lust, you can still have desires, you can still have thoughts. Am I justifying the other? I'm not. I'm trying to get us to the root of the issue. The problem is inside of me, and I can fight it. I can condemn it. I can tell my enter depravity. Seven hundred and fifty two laws, that law, all the law there is to reveal that how messed up I am on the inside. It doesn't clean, it doesn't it doesn't kill, it doesn't fix it. Almost every Christian program deals with it from a law based perspective. And I want you to see law doesn't do that. So let me go through all of that that we just covered really really quick.

1:01:35 And I know we went through that. I know I kept messing up the word concupiscents. I don't have the word in front of me, but I messed that up. But you know, desires, inordinate desires is what that word means. So let's go through this, all right. So the misunderstanding of law, the common assumption is we give people rules, laws, or commands, they will stop sinning. The Biblical truth, law reveals sin, It does not remove it. It cannot remove it. All right. Then we started looking at law's purpose is revelation. It's not reform. All right. We looked at Romans three twenty. Through the law comes knowledge of sin. The law is mirrored. It's not soap. It was given to show sin, not to empower it. Romans seven seven. If I had not been, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin right. The idea is is he did not know sin, or he did not know coveting until the law said do not covet. But once he knew he didn't, it didn't help him stop coveting. It's simply made it worse. The law actually provokes sin Romans seven eight. But sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of coveteousness, all kinds of inordinate desires, concupiscences. Okay, you get the idea Romans seven eleven.

1:02:47 For sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceive me and through it killed me. All right, Sin seized an opportunity through the very commandment, through the very law, Romans five twenty. Now the law all came in to increase the trespass. Law actually multiplies sin right, Romans eighty seven. What's the problem. Well, fall in human nature rebels against the law Romans eighty seven. For the mind that is set on the fleshes hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot on Corinthians fifteen fifty six. The power of sin is the law Galatious three twenty one. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But it's not. No righteousness comes by the law.

1:03:34 Righteousness comes through Christ's keeping of the law, imputed to your account Galatians three nineteen. Why then the law it was added because of transgressions. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. For since the law Hebrews ten to one. For since the law has been but a shadow of good things to come, it can never make perfect. Those who draw near the letter kills. It's the spirit that gives life. There we have it, and any victory is positionally. Practically, it's very hard to measure success over sin practically, because for whatever sin, you're like, hey, look at me, I overcome the sin, and I'll be like, and you're still in a perpetual state of sin. And if you're guilty of one point of the law, you're guilty of all. So how do you even measure Well, I stop doing this sin, but you've broken that commandment, so you're still guilty of the very commandment that you said.

1:04:32 You just got victory over. From a theological perspective, so you're in a perpetual state of sin. I don't know how you measure success when you're in a perpetual stat of sin. I'm in a perpetual state of sin, but I stop sinning there, But you're in a perpetual state of sin. Yeah, and you say, well, that seems very defeatist. Well, I know that's kind of the whole point. That's why we need imputed righteousness. Now, if we were saved by infused righteousness, we could get all practical and talk about victory and overcoming things. But it's not the way it works. All right, I'm going to stop there. We're sixty five minutes now. The next time, well, listen to a little bit more of this, and then we're going to get to well, the real problem. See, the real problem is not only our sin nature. The real problem is the desire.

1:05:27 It's biological, it's psychological, it's inside of us. I know people don't like that, but it's inside of us. That's why in the Book of Genesis, people were committing all kinds of sexual sin way before the Internet, way before pornography, way before Netflix, way before Elvis Presley, way before help Elvis Presley, what way before MTV, way before heavy metal, way before wrap And you got everything going on in Genesis. You've got some you've got polygamy early on Boom, something goes down with Noah and whatever happens inside that tent.

1:06:08 We could get into a whole historical argument that a lot of people believe something sexual took place there, not just more than seeing nakedness. Maybe maybe we'll get into that. We've got rape, we've got incest, We've got we've got clearly some homosexual desires going on. All of that's all going on. Why is all that happening in Genesis? Sinful nature produces all of it, and many of the people committing those sins or quote unquote believers in the True God. What Abraham does to Hagar, you can try to justify that all day takes a woman as no agency, no rights, They use her obviously in a sexual way, really messed up. Yeah, and guess what when they get all the laws, So that means all this is already showing up even before anything even is, you know, around So it's because it's inside of people. And then when you get to Exodus and they get the law, what do they do well from Exodus on since and sins and sins and since and since and polygamy, rape, adultery, murder, lust. I mean, it's throughout the rest of the entire Bible. I wonder why, because the law doesn't fix the problem. All right, we'll stop there, Thanks for listening. I just kind of went

1:07:40 against everything Christianity teaches in twenty twenty five. But that's okay. I've got historical I got Bible theology and Church history on my side. That what I'm giving you is a very correct understanding of the law if we truly, But Christians don't want to apply the law in a correct way because we're a law based and that's where our solutions are a mess. Godless