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The Pleasure That Defeats Pornography · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, if you have the Ask Pastor John book Candy,
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  Speaker 1: and you open up to page one seventy seven, and
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  Speaker 1: you look at the very bottom of that page in
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  Speaker 1: the footnote, you'll see that I quote Pastor John making
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  Speaker 1: this very important claim quote. My favorite verse in the
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  Speaker 1: Psalms is Psalm sixteen eleven. End quote, underlying or highlight
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  Speaker 1: that John Piper's favorite verses are not for mugs and
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  Speaker 1: t shirts. They are well worn texts for life. The
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  Speaker 1: Bible works, it's living, it's active, it does things. We
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  Speaker 1: believe with our whole heart that a powerful text like
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  Speaker 1: Psalm sixteen eleven has been given to us, that our
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  Speaker 1: lives will be transformed by divine glory. Psalm sixteen, which
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  Speaker 1: we read together today, is an essential text for every
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  Speaker 1: Christian hedonist, and it's on Derek's mind right now too,
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  Speaker 1: who writes us with this question and this life challenge
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  Speaker 1: that he's facing right now. Pastor John, I think you
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  Speaker 1: for this podcast, Derek writes. I know that I once
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  Speaker 1: read from you or heard you preach that Psalm sixteen
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  Speaker 1: eleven is relevant for the struggle against lust and pornography
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  Speaker 1: that is my ongoing struggle. But I can't find where
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  Speaker 1: you made this point. The connection from this future oriented
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  Speaker 1: text to my present struggle with temptation is not especially
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  Speaker 1: clear to me. Can you explain how a glorious promise
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  Speaker 1: like Psalm sixteen eleven functions in my daily battle against
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  Speaker 1: lust today?
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  Speaker 2: Here's the key verse, so everybody knows what we are
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  Speaker 2: talking about. So, David the King in the Old Testament,
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  Speaker 2: speaking by the guidance of the Spirit of God, as
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  Speaker 2: Jesus said about the Psalms, you make known to me
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  Speaker 2: the path of life in your presence. In God's presence,
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  Speaker 2: there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are
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  Speaker 2: pleasures forevermore at Psalm sixteen eleven. So the Bible promises
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  Speaker 2: on God's authority that when we are in the gracious
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  Speaker 2: presence of God, in part now and fully in the
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  Speaker 2: age to come, our joy, our happiness, will be as
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  Speaker 2: full as it can possibly be fullness of joy, and
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  Speaker 2: it will last as long as it can possibly last,
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  Speaker 2: namely forever. In other words, there is nothing, absolutely nothing
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  Speaker 2: in the universe better than the gracious presence of God,
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  Speaker 2: because in the presence of God he proves to be
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  Speaker 2: the greatest possible happiness and the longest possible happiness. That's
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  Speaker 2: what Psalm sixteen eleven holds out to us. No greater pleasure,
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  Speaker 2: no longer pleasure can be conceived. Oh, let me describe
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  Speaker 2: a biblical principle of motivation in regard to sexual temptation,
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  Speaker 2: the temptation. What I mean by sexual temptation is the
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  Speaker 2: temptation to pursue or indulge in sexual pleasure where it
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  Speaker 2: ought not to be found. God designs sexual pleasure for marriage,
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  Speaker 2: the marriage bed, not for pornography, not for immodesty. Then,
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  Speaker 2: after I try to state the principle of biblical motivation,
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  Speaker 2: I want to raise an objection to it and then
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  Speaker 2: answer that objection with the gospel, and then connect that
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  Speaker 2: to Psalm sixteen eleven. So that's where we're going. The
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  Speaker 2: biblical principle of motivation for purity, for not pursuing or
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  Speaker 2: indulging in sexual pleasure where it ought not to be found,
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  Speaker 2: is that the Bible uses fear and hope to draw
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  Speaker 2: us away from impurity. You hear both of these, for
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  Speaker 2: example in Romans eight thirteen. If you live according to
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  Speaker 2: the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit
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  Speaker 2: you put to death the deeds of the body, you
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  Speaker 2: will live. So if you spend your life giving in
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  Speaker 2: to lust, the lust of the flesh, you perish. Now
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  Speaker 2: that's meant to make us afraid. It's meant to strike
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  Speaker 2: fear into our hearts, so that we turn away flee
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  Speaker 2: from temptations of the flesh. But then he says, if
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  Speaker 2: by the spirit you put to death the deeds of
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  Speaker 2: the body, you will live. And that's meant to awaken hope.
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  Speaker 2: In the power of the hope, pursue this purity and
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  Speaker 2: not sin. So the Bible uses both fear and hope,
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  Speaker 2: threat and promise. A couple more examples to help us
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  Speaker 2: feel the force of the way the Bible does this.
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  Speaker 2: Matthew five point twenty nine. If your right eye causes
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  Speaker 2: you to see him, tear it out and throw it away,
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  Speaker 2: For it is better that you lose one of your
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  Speaker 2: members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's in the context of lust. Now that threat
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  Speaker 2: be thrown into hell is meant to awaken fear in us,
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  Speaker 2: so that we take drastic measures to cut off the
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  Speaker 2: power of temptation in our life and escape the path
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  Speaker 2: of destruction. Or on the other side, here's first John
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  Speaker 2: two sixteen. All that is in the world, the desires
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  Speaker 2: of the flesh, the desires of the eyes. The pride
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  Speaker 2: of life is not from the Father, but is from
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  Speaker 2: the world. The world is passing away along with its desires.
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  Speaker 2: But whoever does the will of God abides forever. So
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  Speaker 2: there's the promise, the hope. You couldn't lived for our
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  Speaker 2: with God in those supreme pleasures. So flee sinful desires
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  Speaker 2: of the flesh and do the will of God, and
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  Speaker 2: you'll live forever with Him in happiness. So there's this
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  Speaker 2: double motive all through the Bible, threat and promise, fear
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  Speaker 2: and hope. It's all over the Bible. Hell is real,
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  Speaker 2: Heaven is better. Flee hell, pursue heaven. Now here's the
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  Speaker 2: objection to that set of motivations. There's nothing peculiarly Christian
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  Speaker 2: about that. Everybody does that. That's the way we motivate
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  Speaker 2: people in the world. That's the way everybody motivates other people.
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  Speaker 2: You can scare people away from doing some wrongs by
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  Speaker 2: threatening bad consequences, and you can lure people into doing
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  Speaker 2: some good by promising sufficient rewards. There's nothing uniquely Christian
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  Speaker 2: about that. So what shall we say to that objection?
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  Speaker 2: It's a good one. Enter the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Now something radically new comes into the equation of motivation.
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  Speaker 2: Here's one Peter two twenty four. He himself bore our
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  Speaker 2: sins in his body on the tree. Now just stop,
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  Speaker 2: that's half the verse. Stop there. This is new. No
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  Speaker 2: other religion reveals a God who sent his own son
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  Speaker 2: to endure the punishment for the sins of his enemies.
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  Speaker 2: That is, the times we have looked at pornography or worse,
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  Speaker 2: He died for that. Without this death, this substitution, this punishment,
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  Speaker 2: his bearing our sins in his body, there is no
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  Speaker 2: hope of any future happiness anywhere in the world, beyond
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  Speaker 2: the grave especially. This is a new factor of motivation. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the sentence in first Peter to twenty four continues like this,
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  Speaker 2: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the continuation, that we might die to sin and
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  Speaker 2: live to righteousness. The death of Jesus not only paid
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  Speaker 2: for our sin, it also purchased the power not to sin.
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  Speaker 2: That's what he bought. He himself bore our sins in
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  Speaker 2: his body on the tree that we might die to
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  Speaker 2: sin and live to righteousness. He paid for that.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: What this means is that the forgiven Christian, on the
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  Speaker 2: basis of Christ's death, the forgiven Christian trusting in blood
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  Speaker 2: bought power. Here's the biblical threat in a christ exalting way,
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  Speaker 2: there's a christ exalting threat, and he hears the biblical
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  Speaker 2: promise and hope in a christ exalting way, a Christ's
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  Speaker 2: exalting promise. The forgiven Christian warrior has been given new ears,
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  Speaker 2: new values, new preferences, new desires, new capacities for happiness.
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  Speaker 2: He hears promises and threats differently than the way the
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  Speaker 2: world hears them. Now Psal sixteen eleven enters back in
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  Speaker 2: Psalm sixteen eleven now becomes the centerpiece of those new preferences.
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  Speaker 2: You make known to me the path of life in
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  Speaker 2: your presence, there is fullness of joy in your presence,
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  Speaker 2: God's presence. That's a new affection. That's a new preference.
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  Speaker 2: At your right hand are pleasures your right hand. That's new.
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  Speaker 2: That's a new love, a new desire, a new passion.
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  Speaker 2: At your right hand are pleasures for evermore. This is
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  Speaker 2: now a blood bought fullness of joy. These are now
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  Speaker 2: blood bought pleasures forevermore. These pleasures are now not only
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  Speaker 2: the presence of God in Christ. They are the purchase
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  Speaker 2: of God in Christ. God in Christ is the promise.
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  Speaker 2: God in Christ is the price that purchased the promise.
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  Speaker 2: Now here's the implication for fighting lust because of the
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  Speaker 2: Gospel of Christ crucified. When I am tempted to use
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  Speaker 2: my right hand, Jesus actually use the phrase if your
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  Speaker 2: right hand cause you to sin. If I'm tempted to
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  Speaker 2: use my right hand or my left hand to click
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  Speaker 2: toward pornography or immodesty, I now consider not only the
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  Speaker 2: greatness of the pleasure promise to me. If I walk
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  Speaker 2: in purity, blessed of the pure in heart, they shall
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  Speaker 2: see God. But now I also consider the greatness of
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  Speaker 2: the price paid for me to walk in purity. My
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  Speaker 2: mind turns to beauty, and my mind turns to blood.
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  Speaker 2: My ears hear Jesus say, I have fullness of joy
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  Speaker 2: for you. I have pleasures forevermore for you, And my
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  Speaker 2: eyes hear Jesus say, I suffered crucifixion to turn you
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  Speaker 2: away from the fleeting pleasures of sin and lust, to
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  Speaker 2: embrace the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. And in
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  Speaker 2: that way, psal I'm sixteen eleven is the greatest promise
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  Speaker 2: purchased at the greatest price, and therefore it can become
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  Speaker 2: I pray it will become the greatest power for purity.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, a more potent pleasure that can be used to
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  Speaker 1: defeat the powers of lust. It's so very easy to
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  Speaker 1: see how your favorite verse in the Psalms is Psalm
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  Speaker 1: sixteen to eleven. Appreciate that, Pastor John, and for that
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  Speaker 1: claim see the Aspesto John Book in that footnote on
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of page one seventy seven. And if you're
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  Speaker 1: listening to this episode and you're a doubter still and
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  Speaker 1: you want more proof that the promised spiritual pleasures that
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  Speaker 1: we read about, like in Psalm sixteen eleven and other
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  Speaker 1: places in the Bible, can really compete with the physical
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  Speaker 1: pleasures being offered to you right now by lust in
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  Speaker 1: this life. That's not an uncommon hang up. That is
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  Speaker 1: not an uncommon objection. And you can see the ground
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  Speaker 1: we've covered here in addressing that, also in the Aspesto
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  Speaker 1: John Book on pages three twenty six to three twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky we'll see you back here on Monday.