Christians and Pornography

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday, October the twenty third, twenty twenty four. It is currently one thirteen pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, on this podcast, we have spent a lot of time in the last few months, it feels like a good portion of twenty twenty four, but over the last few months specifically really talking about sin, Christianity and sin and how Christian's and my estimation in my opinion Christianity is. You would think, I know what I'm about to say sounds crazy, but I think in a very practical way, what I'm about to say is very real. Christianity seems incapable of actually being able to talk about and handle the reality of sin in any meaningful way. A Christians approach to sin is to basically act like when you become a Christian, you basically can stop sinning. You basically can say no to sin, yes to God. And even though they will try to just say, well, I mean, you won't be perfect everything they say and everything they talk about basically makes it sound like, well, you should be really really really really really really really close to perfection, and if you're not, you're probably not saved. That's the typical Christian approach, right.

1:35 Christianity is all about morality. Christianity is all about practical righteousness, and almost even though they don't mean to, the concept of being saved by imputed righteousness basically is overshadowed. That's kind of thrown out. It's all about what you do, what you do, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. We're Christians, we don't. They're not Christians. They do. We're the good guy, they're the bad guys. We're there. We're almost sinless. They are sinful. And whenever sin shows up within Christianity, Christians just kind of like, well they're not saved. That's kind of the go to answer, Well, they're not saved, or they're probably not saved, or or something's not right because Christians just don't do these things. So I get very frustrated with this. So a lot of my philological discussion about the subject, I will say I have put forth.

2:31 I'll state it this way. I have put forth my hypothesis. I have put forth my theories. And some may say that my theories are theoretical, they're just theory, they don't really work in practice. But I would argue that most Christians view about sin and being almost sinless. That's theoretical, but in practice it doesn't really work. But everyone has their theory. Everyone has their hypotheses. So what I want to do is take something that's very practical, that's very real, to offer as support to we'll call my theory. All right. Now.

3:15 I could approach this in a much more sensational way, like, oh, look at this story, what does this mean? And this is a problem with that you. I could come at it in a very moralistic, pious way, kind of very phariseical. But I don't want to approach it this way because I want to talk about something that's being reported and I don't want to do so as a way to go see, I told everyone I want to look at it, going, hey, this this is once again shows us that there's a reality that nobody wants to talk about. And this reality involves you and it involves me, even if you're not guilty of the sin. We're going to be talking about even if you've never struggled with it, even if you've never experienced it, even if you've never encountered it, you still have sin in your life. And that's something I've keep trying to convince Christians of. But no, it seems Ruicians want to just constantly try to claim they're basically sinless.

4:04 But that's a lie. Now, the subject we're going to be talking about, and we're going to be mentioning a number of things. You may not want young people around. You may not want your children around, so you may want to put on headphones, you may want to you may want to just wait until this is available on demand. So just we're going to be talking about, we're just going to get very real and get very well. We're going to well, we're going to get very biblical. And when we get very biblical, it can get very explicit. So that's exactly what we're going to do, all right, So I hope you are ready. Let me first of all, establish what I believe to be basic facts. I don't believe these facts are theoretical. I don't believe this is even hypothetical. I believe this is factual. I know many Christians will push back, but I believe I can prove this over and over and over again. And then we'll get to the news article that I think adds proof to my perspective. Are you ready? Here are the facts.

4:59 God is absolutely holy, he is separate from sin. He's other than sin, he is sinless, he is perfect, he is pure. God is without sin, He is holy. All right, I think everyone should be able to acknowledge that that's a biblical factual reality. Number two, I think this is important. God calls us. God calls us to be completely holy and perfect internally and externally. God is holy, and he calls you, he calls me. He calls all of us to be completely holy and perfect. Be ye holy as I am holy. That's in Leviticus, that shows up in what One Peter. He tells us to be perfect as your heavily Father is perfect. That's in the Sermon on the Mount, the Gospel of Matthew. And this perfection and this holiness is not just something that's extra. It is to be internal as well. We are to be perfect internally, we are to be perfect externally. We are to be perfect in every area of our life. God is holy, and he calls us to that same level of perfection and holiness. So number one, God is holy. Number two, God calls us to be completely holy and perfect internally and externally. Number three, we still have a sinful nature.

6:25 We still have a sinful heart, and this is proven by the fact that we continue to sin and thought, word, deed, desire action, internally and externally. Number one, God is holy. Number two, God calls us to be completely holy and perfect internally and externally. Number three, we are still sinners. We have a sinful nature, We have a sinful heart, and this is proven by the fact that we continue to sin internally and externally. We sin in thought, word, deed, desire action. We still sin in our nature and our action.

7:07 Every part of us. We still sin. Number four. We cannot keep God's law. We cannot keep God's law. We cannot. It's not that now that we're Christians that we can. We cannot keep it. We fall short of it continually. And because we fall short of it continually, if we're guilty of one point of the law, we're guilty of all of it. Therefore, you and me we live in perpetual sin. Because God demands perfection We're not perfect, so we're in perpetual sin. God calls us to keep the law. We can't keep it. We are in perpetual sin. So number one, God is holy. Number two, God calls us to basically be perfect. Number three, we have a sinful nature, a sinful heart, and we sin and thought word, deed, desire action internally and externally. And number four, we cannot keep God's law. Therefore we live in perpetual sin. That's the reality of Christianity. It's the reality nobody wants to talk about. It's the reality that we try to act like. No, no, no, When you become a Christian, ooh, everything's changed. No, what's changed is my position? Practically, I'm still a sinner. I still sin. Therefore, what should you expect in your life sin?

8:23 What should you expect in the life of anyone you know who's a Christian? Sin? What should you expect in your church sin? What should you expect in Christianity sin? What do Christians act like that they expect perfection? Christianity entire perspective is broken and confused. Now, we've talked about how the early Church seemed to acknowledge the fact that we are still sinners, because in their liturgies they always began with what some type of confess confession of sin. Let me just read one, Most Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you and thought word. Indeed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone, we have not loved you with our whole heart.

9:16 We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ. Have mercy on us and forgive us. Worship services over and over and over began with a confession. Why because whenever Christians gathered together, it's a gathering of sinners who have sinned. They are in sin, and they will continue to sin. They are sinners. Why are they Christians? Because they've been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, and by faith, his perfection is imputed and accredited to them. So they sit there positionally perfect, but they sit there practically sinners. They sinned on Monday, they send on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. They woke up Sunday morning sinning. They drove to church sinning. They're sitting there in the pew sinning. They're gonna leave sinning, and they're gonna come back still sinning. That's reality. Whenever I say that, people like, oh, no, you have a weak Christianity, you have a defeated Christianity. No that's not the case. Well, you can talk the big game and you can act all phariseical and all pious and all righteous, but I know the reality. You are a sinner, just like I am. Now, I have talked about this, and talked about this, and talked about this. This has been like we've been discussing it. We were doing a series on the Six Secrets of the Christian Life in a book,

10:48 trying to offer some kind of solution and remember how utterly confusing and confounding that God. We've looked at, listen to sermons, and just all the things we've discussed. It's been on going. Well, we obviously we got distracted. I guess you could call it distracted. This podcast takes lots of twists and turns, and next thing you know, we found ourselves over here talking about an axehead. Then Isaiah forty three and hermoneutics and Bible interpretation, and we kind of got started talking about these other things. But what day was it? Let me give you the exact date. I do not want to give you fraugilent information here.

11:32 What date was it? Let me see here? It was Tuesday, October the twenty second, twenty twenty four. That's yesterday when the Christian Post published an article. This is from a Christian website. A Christian website headline, majority of practicing Christians. A majority of Christians admit to viewing porn, many comfortable with the habit. According to a study, the majority of practicing Christians admit to viewing porn, and many are just comfortable with it. Now. The minute I say that, some of you are going to be like, absolutely not. The study is fraudulent because real Christians never look at porn, because real Christians never commit sexual sin, because real Christians are basically perfect. Well, you can believe that, and you're living a lie, because the reality is, Christians commit non sexual sin. Christians commit sexual sins. Christians commit sins, and the mind and their speech and their thoughts and their thinking and their actions and their desires, they commit sin.

12:51 They commit sin the things that we may not even give much attention to, like being proud or being bitter. I mean, we can go on and on in covetious, on and on all the different sins. You may not be struggling with this one. But what we have a tendency to do if it's sexual sin, we just throw those people out. You can commit basically five thousand sins and nobody will call in a question of your salvation. Just don't commit a sexual and because that's the end, you're gonna be crucified. You're gonna be burned at the stake, you may be hung, you're gonna be branded, and then they're gonna throw you into the deepest ocean with what you know, cement tied to your feet so that you'll never be seen again. So when I read this, I'm just gonna be honest. I'm just gonna be honest. I know I can be sarcastic. I know I can be very cynical. But when I read this, I basically acted like, oh, shocking, Christians, look at porn. Who could have ever thought? Who would have ever guessed? This is shocking? I can't believe that.

14:01 And I acted, you know, like I'm not shocked. I'm not surprised any way, shape or form and all of the years of broadcasting, and all of the years of broadcasting if I offered I think at one point I had a booklet adult dealing with Christian Christian Men in pornography, and I think I did a broadcast where I offered that. I think I got more email request for a copy of the booklet than anything I have ever done. I've offered Bible study materials, access to digital curriculum, I've given away books, I've given away commentaries, I've given away surveys of old and New Testament. Nothing was more successful than offering a booklet about Christian men and pornography. I'm out helping men who struggle with pornography. That got the most response of anything I have ever done as far as email traffic. Now, I wonder why that could be. Well, you know why, because there's a lot of Christian men struggling with porn But guess what. They can't tell anyone in their church. They can't tell anyone, but they can contact some anonymous guy on the Internet and say, yeah, send me the booklet. Because you know what they're looking for.

15:13 They're looking for an answer, They're looking for hope, they're looking for a way to do something about it. Any other time that I've talked about pornography in any way, shape or form, inevitably that's when I get, I'll get, I'll get I'll get all kinds of emails. Now, I don't say that because I'm like, ooh, look, it's shocking. No, I'm not shocked by it in any way, shape or form. But here's what frustrates me. One, if the men are exposed for pornography, they'll be viewed as the worst sinners in the history of mankind, even though there's all of these other sins and nobody seems to care. And if you're guilty of one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. And you're in a perpetual state of sin because God says, be holy as he is holy, and you're not holy as He is holy, so you're still a sinner. You're judging that sin, and God says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and you're not perfect. Well, you're yelling and screaming about that sin.

16:06 We're all sinners, even though pornography may not be your sin. But for some reason that sounds like, oh, you're making an excuse you're making an excuse. No one's making an excuse. It's trying to deal with the reality that sin abounds in us even though we're saved. Positionally, I'm a new creature. Practically I'm very much the old I know I can't say that because Christians get submitted. But how many different studies do we have to have that offers proof that what I'm saying is the only accurate way to really understand this, or we're never going to get anywhere. So here's the story. Are you ready? Majority of practicing Christians admit to viewing porn. Many come with the habit, according to a study. Now, if you'll look at the comments underneath this article, where there's currently two hundred and seven, almost right out the gate, these aren't real Christians. Almost immediately, these aren't real Christians. I know because real Christians could never, could never commit sin, never, because it's all and you just listen everyone, Oh, we have the power of God, we have the Holy Spirit, we can basically be perfect.

17:26 And it's like, oh, I'm so sick of hearing Christians talk that way. Any logical person would be like, well wait a minute, well then I could be perfect. Well, no, you can't be perfect. Well, if I've got the power of God to tell me stop sinning, I should be able to be perfect. Well, you can't be perfect. So I have the power of God, but he can't get me to perfection. And if I can't get to perfection, how can I then brag about having the power of God? Because if I can't get to perfection, that means I'm perpetually in sin because perfection is the only standard when I'm no longer sinning, I have the power of God, but I'm perpetually in sin. Okay, yeah, makes a lot of sins. Well, here's the story. First, the first I guess sentence. Here, A majority of practicing Christians, including pastors, admit to viewing pornography, and a large share say they're comfortable with the habit. A new study has found. Please note a majority of practicing Christians, including pastors. No way are you telling me pastors could possibly have sexual desires.

18:33 This is shockcast See now I'm being a little sarcastic. I'm not trying to make light of it. I'm trying to demonstrate that the church seems incapable of being able to admit the reality of sin because we try to create a hallmark movie version of Christianity where everyone's basically perfect. It's not that way. But look, this is not the first study. I've been seeing these studies, going all the way back to the I think the first time I started really seeing these studies was the nineteen nineties. How many Christian men struggle with porn? How many pastors struggle with poor? Hey, porn? Porn is being viewed by members of your church far more than you even want to admit it. Study after study after study, and anytime you give the studies you you always get Christians like, I don't believe these studies. They're not real Christians because real Christians don't send basically. And it's like, well, how about we just admit maybe there's a problem. And the recent and the recent release okay, if I can let me rewrite this sentence, and the recently released research entitled Beyond the Porn Phenomenon, produced in partnership with Pure Desire Ministries, researchers found that pornography use is so prevalent among all demographics, and the gap in use among Christians and non Christians, as well as men and women, has grown narrow over the last eight years. So now the gap between men and women using porn is much closer than it's ever been.

20:06 And now the gap between supposedly Christian and non Christian using porn is much smaller than it's ever been. In other words, everything is pretty much evening out. It's not still, it's not there yet, but it's getting closer and closer and closer. And just this is very important. Whenever they do studies about Christians and their use of porn, you always have to at least to account. But the numbers are not really as high as they even actually are because a lot of Christians are just not going to admit it. A lot of Christians don't want to admit how sinful they are. We all got to put on our church mask. We got to put on our fig leaves, We got to put on our robe of self righteous. That's what churches do, right, Churches They look church if you want. Okay, I know, I'm gonna get myself in trouble for this. We talk about Halloween, and everyone dresses up.

20:54 Church plays Halloween every Sunday. Everyone dresses up in their Sunday best and we all come acting. Oh look, there's husband and wife and kids. Oh, we're good a Christian family. Everything's perfect, and we're all godly, and we're so much better than those pagans. We play dress up every Sunday. Rarely can you be as honest as you want to be. Now, I know there's a time and place for honesty. I'm not saying everyone should walk into the sanctuary and go I have committed the first these thirty four sins. You may not have to come in admitting you've committed those thirty four sins. But first, the early Church always started their worship service if I ever went admitting that they are a sinner. And maybe we could just, I don't know, get rid of this arrogant, smug self righteousness and be a little bit more humble and broken and stop saying them them them them them, and say us US US.

21:53 Even though practicing Christians still view our found of you pornography less frequently than non Christians, the gap between the two groups was only fourteen percent points. Now, again, it's only a fourteen percentage point difference. To me, that fourteen percentage point is not even a true fourteen percentage points because there's a lot of people I guarantee just not going to admit it. Some fifty four percent of Christians reported viewing pornography, compared with sixty eight percent of non Christians, So it's between fifty four percent for the Christian and sixty eight the non Christian. I think the non Christian is going to be much more open about it, much more willing to admit it, may even be proud of it.

22:36 But even then it depends on the situation. Even the non Christian may be a little hesitant, depending on the situation. But okay, in general, here we go. Seventy five percent of Christian men and forty percent of Christian women reported consuming porn on some level. It's seventy five percent of Christian men. I can't speak to the women. I'm not I don't even have you know. That's the women can address it for themselves. I'm a man, so I can only speak for men. But I've told you I've seen it in my own, my own life, my own ministry, whether broadcasting or in church. I cannot tell you how many men have spoken about the struggle with pornography to some level or degree. The numbers are staggering. The reality I'm I'm just telling you the reality is far more than anybody wants to admit. And so while we're running around saying we basically don't sin, we basically we have power.

23:42 We have how about we just admit I'm still a sinner with a sinful nature, and not only that. I know this is shocking. Okay, I know this is shocking. Okay, this is a secret. So shit, don't tell anyone sexual desire it's kind of a natural biological need. It's like, it's pretty natural to have the desire for sex. I know, I know this is shocking to some of you. I know you don't want to admit this. I know this may just mess up your whole life. But it's it's inside of us. It's it's a very natural desire of There may be different levels of desiring different people, but it's there, ladies and gentlemen, it is there. Nothing puts it inside of us. It's already inside of us. Is that shocking to you? Maybe it may be because many Christians act like when I became a Christian, the desire was just gone. It just disappeared. It just it doesn't work that way. Despite the Church's stance against lust, generally, it seems little progress has been made to deter any of those who fill the pews from pornography consumption. Specifically, a researcher said, the gap between professed beliefs and actual

25:13 behavior raises the question about the efficacy of current approaches within faith communities. In other words, what they're saying is, after all of these years, we haven't figured out anything that works. Oh, I wonder, I wonder, I see. Now you just name this. Forget pornography, name the sin right, gossip, slander, bearing, false witness, unforgiveness, not loving your enemy, not loving your neighbor as yourself, not loving God. Just do all things without complaining and murmuring. Just go on and on and on it. Just list all of the possible sins. Every approach the church has to fix them never work because it's nothing more than moralism and it's basically nothing more than the same. It's like the twelve step program. You have a problem, it's all a bunch of dues, and don't you know how we want to resolve all of the problems within Christianity. Our solution is it's always law, base law, law, law, law, don't do this, do this, don't do this, have an accountability partner, do this. Have a blocker. Don't do this. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Lock yourself in a monastery, rip out your eyeballs, cut off your hands, bury yourself. Die. That's the only hope. Instead of going wait a minute, wait a minute, how about we acknowledge the issue. Here's the issue.

26:33 You're still a center, I'm still a sinner. You have a sinful nature. I have a sinful nature. Therefore we're going to sin. We got to just start right there. Sin is the reality of the Christian life. Nobody wants to admit that we have to start there. I'm not excusing it. I'm not saying it's right. It's a reality. So what is the solution. Well, first and foremost, the solution is acknowledging that we're still going to sin, and our only hope is in an imputed righteousness, which does not change us. I know that's shocking to everyone, but we are saved by an imputed righteousness, meaning at foreign alien righteousness is accredited to your account. It does not transform you. It does not change you. You are transformed and changed positionally, but practically you are still a sinner with a sinful nature and you're still going to sin if we can't, if we don't start there, so then we shouldn't be so shocked by it. Well, sin is going to just show up. It's the natural thing that's going to happen. And again, it's not you can remove pornography from this. See everyone's going to make this about pornography.

27:36 Forget pornography, name any sin, any sin. The study noted that in the last eight years since the report was first published, the rapid shift in the culture and digital landscape has compounded the issues in the church with pornography and unwanted sexual behavior. Now I'm going to start right here and I'm going to get frustrated. Hey, what has happened? The digital landscape has changed, so now the problem is even worse. Oh, stop it. We always want to blame everything outside of us. This problem has existed way before there was ever the internet. Okay, ever before there was pornography, sexual sin has been prevalent. Do I need to remind you Christians, I don't know of something called the Bible.

28:31 Let's just take a quick journey from Genesis through the Book of Exodus. Just the first two books, Genesis and Exodus. We're going back to the beginning. Everybody wants to say, let's go back to Genesis. Well, let's go back to Genesis, all right. Here's a list of the sexual sins that are mentioned or condemned and just Genesis and Exodus. First Genesis, chapter twelve, ten through twenty and Chapter twenty, verses one through eighteen. We have adultery. Abraham's wife Sarah's taken into Pharaoh and later a Bimelech's household, suggesting a potential for adultery, though God does intervene, which we can have all kinds of discussion. This act shows the risk of adultery when Sarah's presented as Abraham's sister, So almost immediately we have the possibility of adultery being mentioned. Wait, you're gonna take her and she's not really your wife? And okay, already adulteres being at least hinted at. We have rape in Genesis nineteen five through eight, and sodom men try to force themselves on lots of visitors angels Lot offers his daughters in their place, highlighting the perversion of Sodom's people.

29:38 So we have rape. Now, well, we could even go into we could go into some other things about Well, yeah, there's other things we could go into. But already we have adultery and rape, and we're just now in Genesis nineteen. We have adultery in rape. Then we jump to Genesis chapter nineteen Versus thirty through thirty six, we have in sessions. Some would refer to this as incestuous rape. Lot's daughters get him drunk. Obviously he therefore he cannot give consent, so that would be rape. It's an incest because it's his daughters. They get him drunk and they sleep with him to conceive children, resulting in the birth of Moab and Ammon. The act of incest is viewed as im moral.

30:20 So just now we're just up to Genesis nineteen. You have adultery, we have rape, and we have incestuous rape. Nineteen chapters of the first Book of the Bible. Well, then we have the rape and violation of Dinah Genesis thirty four one through two. Shechem, the son of Hamar the Hitte, rapes Dinah, Jacob's daughter. The incident leads to her brother seeking vengeance by killing the men of Shechem's town. Right, so we have rape, Right, we had incestuous rape. Now we have rape. How about net we have adultery and attempted adultrey. In Genesis thirty nine, Potiphar's wife Trust has seduced Joseph, but he resists her attempt. Her attempt adultery is condemned, and Joseph is portrayed as righteous for fleeing the temptation. So we have adul attempted adulterree. There. Then, in Genesis thirty eight, fifteen through eighteen, we have prostitution.

31:13 Judah mistakes his daughter in law Tamar, for a prostitute and sleeps with her. The act highlights the sexual and morality of prostitution, although the situation is complex due to Judah's prior neglect of Tamar's right to marry his son. But you even have the idea of thinking someone's a prostitute already in Genesis thirty eight. So early on in the recorded history of humans in the Bible, after the Fall, sexual sin just starts showing up in all kinds of way. Adultery, rape, incest a, prostitution, all of this going on. Genesis thirty eight, thirteen through twenty six incestuous relationship. Judah knowingly sleeps with his daughter in law Tamar, while Tamar's actions are part of seeking justice for being denied offspring the relations so the relationship itself is condemned, as is incestuous. So we have incest, we have rape, we have adultery, We have all of this going on. How about in Genesis, if we go to Genesis four nineteen, Genesis sixteen one through four, and Genesis twenty nine, twenty one through thirty, we have polygamy.

32:18 Polygamy occurs throughout Genesis, including Laymack Abraham taking Hagar as a concubine. Now we could say that when he sleeps with Hagar, do we reference that as sexual violence and rape? Because I don't think she could give much consent. So even that, we've got problems going on. Jacob marrying Leah and Rachel, although not explicitly condemned, the narrative surrounding polygamy often depict resulting strife and dysfunction, such as jealousy between Rachel and Leah. So we have polygamy going on, we have incest going on, we have rape going on, we have adultery going on, and we're just in the first book of the Bible. Oh, in Genesis nineteen five, we have homosexuality. The men of subdom attempted to engage in homosexual acts with Lot's guests, which is part of the wickedness that leads to the destruction of sodom. So now we have homosexuality, and just now, let's not forget a Lot offering up his daughters for them to do whatever they want. I don't know where we even classify that.

33:07 Where do we even count that? I don't know. I don't even know where. You tell me where you classify that. Then, in Genesis twenty twelve we have incestuous marriage. Abraham marries his half sister Sarah, which, while not condemned in Genesis, is later prohibited by the law of Moses. Now we come to the book of Exodus. Exodus twenty fourteen, adultery is condemned. We have Exodus twenty seventeen coveting another spouse, the tenth Commandment forbids coveting your neighbor's wife, which indirectly addresses sexual sin related to lust and envy. Next, sexual relations with animals Exodus twenty two nineteen. Beastiality is specifically condemned and carries the death death penalty. Now you're in Exodus twenty two, and a law has to be passed about bestiality, A law has to be mentioned about people sleeping with animals. Come on, now, that means there was a problem. That means there was an issue. I mean, like, I don't know what else we have to do. I mean that's insane. Next, prostitution Exodus twenty two, sixteen through seventeen.

34:20 Although not explicitly mentioned as prostitution, there's a law aby seducing a virgin and the requirement to marry her or compensate her father, which could imply situations evolving inappropriate sexual relations outside of marriage. These examples illustrate various forms of sexual immorality and how they were viewed in the earliest Biblical text, often tied to both social and moral consequences. Many of these acts are later explicitly condemned in the law given in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. What I want you to see is sexual sin has been there from the word go. They didn't need pornography, they didn't need a our movie, they didn't need a pornographic magazine or a pornographic website. Because sin, the desire for sex, is inside of us. It's there it's biological. It's there. And guess what else is inside of us? Sin? So you have sin and you have a desire for sex, and guess what the two they create? Then, well, sexual sin because well your desire or are you're already going to be wanting to fulfill that biological need, maybe in a way that God forbids, and then you may act upon it.

35:36 This has been going on from the beginning. And you have Christians, all right, just man, just the problem is so bad today? The problem is so the problem has always been bad because we're sexual creatures with sinful natures. Guess what that means. There's going to be sexual sin. If just forget sex, forget pornography, forget it, you are sinful. Therefore you are sinful in your thoughts and your words, and your deeds and your desires. Your sinful in your relationships. You're sinful, oh so many ways. The article goes on to say, beyond the porn phenomenon represents a sobering call to realize our collective struggle has not improved. In spite of some initial steps to bring health to the church.

36:33 The average Christian is not experiencing freedom in this area. Seventy five percent of Christian men and forty percent of Christian women report that they're viewing pornography at least occasionally, noting that the statistics for pornography use among today's young adults Generation Z are even worse. While may be more troubling is that that well over half of Christians who use porn say they're comfortable with the porn youths. The reality for those who struggle in the church that they too often feel like they are alone. When asked who is helping you with your struggle with pornography, a staggering eighty two percent of Christians say no one isolation is the enemy's playground. Well, of course, no one is going to because what do you do one? Because you're raised in a Christianity that basically says you should be basically perfect, Well you're not. See if you were raised in a situation where you could admit you're a sinner, whatever sin you're struggling with, nobody here is going to be shocked or surprised because we all are right. But I understand. Look, I do understand. There has to be a time and place and how this is done. There's got to be I know there has to be I know, you can't just come into the sanctuary and just say, hey, last night I was I spent forty five minutes on pornhub. Right, That's and the reason I'm mentioning porn hub just is because it's literally right here in the article. The artwork here is porn hub. Okay, So don't everybody else are going, oh, he knows about porn hub. It's right here in the article, Ladies and gentlemen, Okay, it's right here in the articles.

38:00 Everyone calm down, Okay. So the point is you can't necessarily do that, and I understand that. But even if you create an atmosphere not where everyone has to just openly admit it, but they can openly admit that they are a sinner and they still sin, and everyone's like, well, welcome to the club. We're all sinners here, and we're all struggling with sin. I don't excuse yours, you don't excuse mine. Nobody's making an excuse. But everyone can be like, okay, all right, this is where sinners meet, and this is where we confess that we are sinners, and this is where we put our hope and trust in imputed righteousness, and we look to Jesus Christ for that forgiveness as we then seek and struggle against these sinful issues, if we can at least create an atmosphere where people could be at least admit that much, even if you don't admit the name of the sin. I know Christians will say, no, that's the way we present it, But just listen to preaching.

39:04 It's almost inevitably basically if you're a Christian. I mean, look, come on, almost very few churches handle if anyone is in crisis a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold all things that become new. Ninety nine percent of churches do not handle that in even a remotely correct way that's even attached to reality. They all say, no, when you become a Christian, you literally become a new creature. You practically everything has changed and everything is new. Well, we know that that's not true. That is only true of us positionally. So if you go around telling everyone, hey, basically you should stop sinning, well, then what do you do? Now here's the weird part. The people who struggle with porn will be filled with brokenness, guilt, shame, embarrassment, humiliation.

39:49 But all the other people committing fifteen other sins, they don't feel the same guilt, shame, embarrassment, and humiliation. Why is it only this sin? That's the point I'm trying to make. This is not aboutography, This is about sin in general. The church is filled with sin, not just this sin. The one of the leaders said, the church needs to be a place where people can get free from the troubling habit. So so many Christians have now accepted. And I think you see it's like, well, the church is the place where you get free. Well, see that's such a subjective. You get free from that sin, but what about the other You're never going to be free from sin. See that's that's see. It already starts to meet with the wrong focus. You need to come here to get free. You're never gonna be free from sin until glorification. Now I'm not excusing it, but if you come in and go, oh, we got to get free from this sin, well then okay, you get free from this sin, But what about this sin? This and this and and this and this and this sin. We got to start with a more like realistic idea. Okay, we're never going to be free from sin. But this particular sin could have the following negative consequences. Right, could hurt your marriage, could hurt your relationship. We could get into all the possible negative consequences that could come arise from it, and we can talk about that and then struggle with it.

41:15 But I think you go into it though. Just realize, even if you get free from this, you're not free from sin. They go on to say, some sixty two percent of individuals surveyed in the study in general express comfort with their level of porn consumption. Another sixteen percent said they had some reservations about it, but said they found moderate levels of use acceptable. This group still wish they did not use pornography as frequently. The study further highlighted how comfortable people have become with pornography. Only fourteen percent expressed a desire to kick the habit entirely. Gen Z, though, those individuals born between nineteen ninety nine and twenty fifteen are the least likely to say that we're comfortable using hang on, so gen Z, those individuals born between nineteen ninety nine and twenty fifteen were the least likely to say that we're comfortable using pornography. That's interesting Nearly forty nine percent of practicing Christians who are also porn users said they were comfortable with their level of use, compared to seventy three percent of non Christians. Another twenty one percent expressed a desire to completely abstain. Still, a majority of US adults believe that regular porn use, which most use, which most won't get into what they all use it for.

42:28 Most believe has no impact on their overall sexual health and claim that they can regularly view porn and live a sexually healthy life. This view is held more strongly by men seventy five percent women fifty nine percent. Practicing Christians are less likely to agree compared to the general population. Still, more than half of practicing Christians fifty five percent agree a person can regularly view pornography and live a sexually healthy life. Researchers noted additionally, a majority of US adults sixty percent, agree that watching pornography can improve a person's sex life. This sentiment is shared by almost half of practicing Christians forty eight percent. To help the church address pornography problem among the pews, researchers encourage leaders to, among other things, partner with experts prioritize education and awareness, and create a safe space for people to get real. Ultimately, the church is meant to be a source for hope for people facing all sorts of challenges in life, including struggles with pornography. By addressing the issue had on with care, understanding, and practical support, churches can fulfill their role as a place of healing and restoration. They said. Even small steps towards openness and support can make a significant impact in the lives of those struggling. That's the last paragraph. You immediately go to the comments and they're like, these people aren't real Christians. Well, guess what. You're not going to find any love and support in a church when immediately you're saying you're not a real Christian. And what I love is the people in the comments who say they're

43:58 not real Christians. But I guess it's the sin they commit. They are still real Christians. So you can be a real Christian and commit these sins. You just can't be a real Christian and commit that sin. That just shows you how utterly messed up Christianity is. Now again everyone's going to make this about pornography. You're missing the point. The point is This article about pornography is simply a practical piece of evidence to support my overall claim, which is we are sinners. We're going to continue to sin, and we live in perpetual sin, and we cannot keep the law of God because God's law, God's standard is perfection internally and externally and thought, word, deed, desire, and action, and we cannot do it, we never will do it.

44:53 We live therefore in a perpetual state of sin. That's reality that is not debatable, that can cannot be argued unless you claim that you are sinless. And if you claim you're sinless, then you've got a major problem because you're diluted and you're out of your ever living mind. Now, how do we live the Christian life where you admit I'm a sinner. I admit I'm a sinner, and we're like, well, we're sinners together. Now, how do we proceed moving forward? Well, we don't proceed by pretending something that's not real. And the first thing we're going to need is a good grasp on imputed righteousness, and we're going to have to cling to that with everything that we have. That's the only thing that's going to give us any hope and we know, so we can cling to imputed righteousness that gives me hope in the present. Right, Okay, my salvation has nothing to do with what I do or don't do.

45:52 It's all about what Christ did. Christ save me with an imputed righteousness, not an infused righteousness. So I'm still a sinner, So sin is what I'm going to do. We can at least grab onto this imputed righteousness. We can look towards the future when there'll come a time where I will have a glorified body and there'll be no more sin. Okay, so there's going to be a time I'm going to be free. I'm right now, positionally free. Practically though, between being saved by an imputed righteousness and positionally perfect and glorification, well then I'll be made perfect. And between is this great valley of sin and failure and humiliation and ups and downs. Now, how do we live in that valley? Well, we don't want to come into the valley and say, hey, do whatever you want.

46:46 At the same time, we got to admit it, no matter how many victories we have, we're going to still be in the perpetual state of sin, because that's just a reality. I don't have some easy solution for it, but I know the ones we cannot have is creating a fake idea that Christianity is something. Then it Then it is, because we've been doing that for a very long time, and we're not fooling anybody. We're not fooling anyone. Purity culture tried to convince everyone, and it didn't work. It failed. Many of the major proponents of some of those ideologies apologized for them. Now does God call us to holiness? Yes, that's law, and we immediately see we can't do it. So then we need christ imputed righteousness. Okay, right now, But how do we do in the meantime, Well, we got to just be able to be honest and struggle.

47:55 But I don't I think we have to just be able to one to look, okay, man, that person's in that's not good, all right. So what we do, Well, you can throw them out of the Kingdom of God, which is our first thought. You can immediately start saying, well, now you can never do this, and you can never do this, and give them a list of all the supposed rules that they're disqualified from based off our own imagination. Because scripture never really gives us that list of how it works. Okay, how about we just do this instead of worrying about that. We're like, okay, we need a medic. I talk about this all the time. Christianity should be filled with battlefield medics. Right, you got the red Cross on your arm, you got your medical kid, Right, you're in the battlefield. Someone goes down, they just got their leg blown off. They got there, We need a medic, and you come running not to go, well, you idiot, you're probably not even a real soldier. What are you doing.

48:45 You're now disqualified from ever being in the military. How about we just stop that and say I'm here to help. Here we go, we got to stop the bleeding. Okay, we got to do this. Okay, we gotta do all right. We need to get you transported back, and then we need to get you, you know, ara of backed out so we can get you more care because we're going to need extensive surgery. But we saved the life. We don't want to save love. We don't want to be battlefilm medics. We want to go like, oh, oh they did what, Well, let me go tell everyone what they did. Now, let's all sit in our podcast and YouTube channels and bind the pulpit and pass judgment on what they did. Let's see if we can add more shame and humility.

49:26 Let's se if we can kick them and destroy them and kick them out of the body of Christ. Let's not come to pick them up and to help them. No, let's use it as now. Nobody else does this, because if you do it, see what happens to you now. I wish Christianity was a system that when you get saved, boom, the old is completely gone. You're completely new, and you can you can basically stop so you can stop sinning. Wouldn't that be great if the minute you became a Christian God removed your sinful nature and you never sinned again. Wouldn't that be the greatest thing in the world. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm just a sinner with a microphone. And you know why I'm a sinner with a microphone, because there's a lot of sinners. Listen.

50:20 Who needs to listen to a center with a microphone Because I'm a sinner, You're a sinner, and we're just sinners trying to figure this out and what we have to do is start with the reality of what we are sinners. And it seems the primary means in which God has addressed our sin is in the finished work of his son, Jesus Christ, and by putting our faith in him, his perfect righteousness is imputed in my account. He does not change me, he does not infuse it. It's imputed. And I'm declared to be that which I am not. And he promises me there'll come a day that I will be transformed, changed, and no more the body of sin will be completely gone. But in the meantime, sin is what happens. Now, don't leave here making this about pornography. Just make it about the reality of sin.

51:22 And if you hear this and you're struggling with pornography, well we're all struggling with sin of some sort. We all are. And you say, well, what's the Is there a magical solution? Well, first, just submit you struggle with sin, cling to that imputed righteousness. And then, of course, I mean, it's the same simple steps that are offered for any even the world offers the same steps for behavioral modification. We'll do this and don't do this, and do this and have this, and well, you can make all of the you know, all those things if you would so to do so. But there's no magical step. Now Christians will say, read your Bible more, pray more, and give you more law to try to keep, and then you'll just have more sins to confess. I don't read enough, I don't pray enough, I don't go to church enough, I don't do this enough. You'll just find out that you while you're so, you'll stop worrying about pornography because you'll realize the thirty seven thousand other sins that you're committee.

52:23 All Right, there you go. I don't know if that was of help. I just think it fits perfectly well what we've been talking about, and it's just proof of what I've been saying. But it doesn't have to be about pornography. It could be about literally any sin. It literally could be gossip, slander, false witness, coveteousness, bitterness, unforgiveness, not loving your enemy, not turning the other cheek. I could just do not doing all things without grumbling and complaining. I mean, you don't rejoice always. I mean the list is so long that we could break every one of those sins down into percentages. The majority of Christians commit this sin. The majority of Christians commit this sin. The majority of Christians commit this sin, no matter which sin it is. The majority of Christians committed in some way, shape or form, because that's what we do. All right, Thanks for listening, everyone, have a great day. I'll stop there.

53:24 I think I've hopefully made the point. God bless