by Pastor Ed Evans
Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-25
65:17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
65:20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
65:23 They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well.
65:24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.
65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
According to an MSNBC.com news story this week, by Helen A.S. Popkin, the giant online book sales company, Amazon.com, apparently bowed to public pressure and removed a self-published book advocating adult-child sex. The book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct" by Philip R. Greaves II, was initially defended by Amazon.com in a public statement that said, "Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions."
In other words, it was all about sales, with no hint of social responsibility. Also disappearing from their list about the same time was "Our Gardens of Flesh: From the Seeds of Lust Springs the Harvest of Love," another sexually-graphic e-book by the same author. No one protested that one, but they exhibited the socially responsible good sense to remove it.
Unfortunately, in our modern society, there are those who would buy such books.
I want you to know without a shadow of a doubt that this is more than a First Amendment, free speech, issue. It is more than "holier than thou" people looking down their nose at others. This is an issue not just of differences of opinion or even of breached morals, this is an issue of life and death; eternal life and death. And because I want to ensure you understand the seriousness of this battle raging within our society, I'm going to share with you some very disturbing facts.
According to a study from 2003, performed seven years ago by Internet Filter Review, at that time there were 1.3 million pornographic websites carrying 260 millions pages of this stuff. There are undoubtedly more now.
What keeps it going? The total porn industry revenue for the year 2006 was $13.3 billion in the U.S., $97 billion worldwide.
This is anything but a harmless industry since worldwide it involves sexual adult slaves and children. One in ten adults admits to Internet sexual addiction, and of those 28% are women. But listen to this, more than 70% of men from age 18 to 34 visit a pornographic site in a typical month, according to a study by comScore Media Metrix. That means in an average grouping of 10 men, only three have not.
Of that wretchedness, there were more than 20,000 images of child pornography posted online every week, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. What is the impact, the effect on those children? Approximately 20% of all Internet pornography involves children, according to the National Center for Mission & Exploited Children. As of December 2005, child pornography was a $3 billion annual industry, according to Internet Filter Review.
At this point, I want to go wash my hands, scrub out my computer. But, wait, it gets worse. It gets much sadder.
A 1996 Promise Keepers survey at one of their stadium events revealed that over 50% of the men in attendance were involved with pornography within one week of attending the event.
Then you have 51% of pastors saying cyber-porn is a possible temptation, and 37% saying it is a current struggle, according to a Christianity Today Leadership Survey. In fact, more than half of evangelical pastors admit viewing pornography last year.
Focus on the Family's Robert Charman, of Pastoral Ministries, reports that approximately 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography and compulsive sexual behavior.
A Christianity Today survey reports 33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit web site. Of those who had visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites “a few times” in the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week.
A Barna Group survey shows that 29% of born again adults in the U.S. feel it is morally acceptable to view movies with explicit sexual behavior .
In a Christians and Sex Leadership Journal Survey, 57% of pastors say that addiction to pornography is the most sexually damaging issue to their congregation.
There is more, but I hope you get the picture. Pornography is seriously damaging to the children and adults involved in the making of it, rotting away the base of our society, and weakening the stature of those who should be involved in making us stronger before God Almighty. It is poisoning the well of our children's future, and like the drug trade, it is killing us.
No, you cannot close your eyes to it. You cannot turn your back on it and hope to ignore it. You cannot walk away from it and hope it goes away. It is going to attack someone you love, someone you know, perhaps even someone you respect.
You, me, all of us must deal with it.
Why? Let me begin with Ezekiel 33:8 -- "When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood."
At the same time, I would point out the content of Luke 17:2 -- "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin."
It is important that the American family take control of its own home, what comes into it, what leaves it. You see, the Internet Filter Review reports that Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
A U.S. Department of Justice Post Hearing Memorandum of Points and Authorities, in a case titled ACLU vs. Reno, reads: "Never before in the history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene) material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions."
We are poisoning the well.
Not long ago the Sears department stores began, on Father's Day, promoting pornographic posters on their Internet web site and in their stores. The reaction of the community they serve was immediate and angry. Still, while after several weeks of protests they finally removed them from their Internet site, they continued to sell them in their stores; a classic example of profit taking precedence over the health of the very community they serve.
Certain hotel and motel chains continue to offer pornographic movies in their rooms despite protests.
Some mass market magazines you routinely find in your grocery stores have pushed the pornographic envelope with a blushing cover now and then, unmindful that these magazines are often on checkout racks at the eye level of a 5-6 year-old child. To their credit, some grocery stories have banned specific issues when this happens.
This is neither vigilantism nor censorship, but responsible stewardship within the community. First, if someone insists on exposing themselves to such puerile trash, there are unfortunately plenty of other places to procure it without exposing young children to it.
Secondly, confusing discernment with vigilantism or censorship is a sign of spiritual immaturity. The novice Bible student might point out that while in 1st Cor. 2:15 it says, "But he that is spiritual judges all things..." while in Matt. 7:1 it says "Judge not, that you be not judged..."
Author F. F. Bruce suggests "Judgment is an ambiguous word, in Greek as in English: it may mean sitting in judgment on people (or even condemning them), or it may mean exercising a proper discrimination. In the former sense judgment is depreciated; in the latter sense it is recommended."
However, while the Christian is not to judge hypocritically or self-righteously, scripture repeatedly urges the believer to evaluate carefully and choose between good and bad people and things. 1st Thess. 5:21 tells us the Christian is to "test everything, and hold to that which is good." That's using your good judgment.
Christian author A. W. Tozer writes: "Among the gifts of the Spirit scarcely one is of greater practical usefulness than the gift of discernment. This gift should be highly valued and frankly sought as being almost indispensable in these critical times. This gift will enable us to distinguish the chaff from the wheat and to divide the manifestations of the flesh from the operations of the Spirit."
In our scripture today God is promising blessings to the faithful, a new heaven and earth where God will answer even before they ask. A blessing worth far more than anything any temporary emotional thrill can bring on this earth. It tells us that God will not leave the world the way it is, but will free us to bring light to the darkness of sin, and those who will not abandon their sin will go down with it. God will see a fulfillment of our purpose here on earth, and those who ignore that, or lack discernment, will be left out, in the darkness to which they cling.
Our God says He will create things anew, and there is nothing new about devaluing life, as pornography does, turning adults and children into objects for pleasure, ignoring their sense of worth, their emotional feelings, demeaning those who are original creations of God Almighty. Pornography is as old as the worship of Baal, and clearly as destructive. It has no place in the Christian's life, no place in the Christian's thoughts.
The reaction to commercial institutions promoting such unacceptable, damaging activity to the human spirit in our communal society must be exactly what it has been, combined community pressure to shame them into placing the interests of a healthy society above the desire to make a profit.
The people of God must make it abundantly clear they will not do business with those who place profits above the mental and emotional health of their children, their community, and themselves.
We have a vote in these matters, with our pocketbook, and with our feet. And a clear word of protest can sometimes clarify the issue for those who have allowed the promise of profits to cloud their judgment.
Just as surely as we look to the fulfillment of God's promise of Isaiah 65:17-25 in which we will glory, we must also hold to the fulfillment of God's promises in 2nd Chronicles 7:14 -- "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Amen.
Daily Scripture Readings for November 14 - November 20, 2010
Monday -- Matthew 25:1-13
Tuesday -- Colossians 4:2-18
Wednesday -- 1st Thessalonians 5
Thursday -- 2nd Thessalonians 2
Friday -- 2nd Thessalonians 3
Saturday -- John 4:31-38
Sunday -- Malachi 4:1-6; Psalm 82; 2nd Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
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