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The High Price of Watching Nudity · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, Jesus died to make us pure. That's the powerful
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  Speaker 1: truth we encounter in our navigator's Bible reading today and
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  Speaker 1: Titus two fourteen. Christ gave himself to redeem us from
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  Speaker 1: all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for
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  Speaker 1: his own possession who are zealous for good works. This
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  Speaker 1: is why the only sin that we can truly purge
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  Speaker 1: from our lives is sin that has already been forgiven.
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  Speaker 1: The Gospel isn't just the starting point of the Christian life,
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  Speaker 1: it's essential for every step forward. That's the order. Step one,
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  Speaker 1: sin is canceled in the cross by the blood of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. We're justified before God. Then step two, that
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  Speaker 1: forgiven sin is then purged from our lives by the
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  Speaker 1: spirit as we grow in holiness. We can never reverse
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  Speaker 1: that order. First sin is canceled, then sin is conquered.
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  Speaker 1: This order is vital, This theme is precious, and this
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  Speaker 1: theme is at the heart of gospel transformation that we
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  Speaker 1: celebrate often. As you'll see in the APGA book pages
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  Speaker 1: two seventy four, two seventy five, make that connection. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: died to make his bride, the church beautiful in real
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  Speaker 1: lived out holiness, That truth motivates us to fight sin,
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  Speaker 1: and especially sin of the eyes and the heart. So
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  Speaker 1: what does that mean in the battle against lust? Particularly
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to watching nudity in movies or on
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  Speaker 1: social media. Sexualized content is everywhere, Passer, John, you know this.
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  Speaker 1: Advertisers use suggestive images to selfing, social media influencers post
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  Speaker 1: provocatives or semi nude photos to gain followers. Musicians often
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  Speaker 1: rely on sexual appeal to captivate audiences, both on stage
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  Speaker 1: and in music videos. Movies and TV shows include nudity,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes in graphic scenes, other times in ways that just
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  Speaker 1: simply objectify characters or suggests sexual innuendo. Then there's more
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  Speaker 1: explicit content pornographic material available on subscription platforms and adult
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  Speaker 1: websites offering direct access to lust driven media. Lust feels
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  Speaker 1: so much of Western media. So, pastor John, what are
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  Speaker 1: your convictions here? How do you personally navigate this culture
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  Speaker 1: while honoring Christ's call to purity?
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  Speaker 2: Tony the closer I get to death and meeting Jesus
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  Speaker 2: personally face to face and giving an account for my
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  Speaker 2: life and for the careless words that I've spoken Matthew
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  Speaker 2: twelve thirty six, And how much more for intentional stares.
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  Speaker 2: The more sure I am of my resolve never intentionally
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  Speaker 2: to look at a TV show or a movie, or
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  Speaker 2: a website or a magazine where I know I will
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  Speaker 2: see photos or films of nudity.
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  Speaker 1: Never.
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  Speaker 2: That's my resolve. And the closer I get to death,
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  Speaker 2: the better I feel about that, and the more committed
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  Speaker 2: I become. And I want to invite, frankly, all Christians
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  Speaker 2: to join me in this pursuit of greater purity of
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  Speaker 2: heart and mind. In our day when entertainment media is
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  Speaker 2: virtually the lingua franca of the world, this is an
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  Speaker 2: invitation to be an alien. And I believe with all
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  Speaker 2: my heart that what the world needs is radically bold,
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  Speaker 2: sacrificially loving god besoughted freaks aliens. In other words, I
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  Speaker 2: am inviting you to say no to the world for
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  Speaker 2: the sake of the world. The world does not need
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  Speaker 2: more cool, hip, culturally savvy, irrelevant copy of itself. That's
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  Speaker 2: a hoax that thousands of young Christians have been duped by.
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  Speaker 2: They've got to be hip, cool, savvy, culturally aware, watching
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  Speaker 2: everything in order not to be freakish, and that is
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  Speaker 2: undoing them morally. And I think by for their witness.
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  Speaker 2: So here are my reasons. I've got twelve, so it's
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  Speaker 2: going to take a few minutes, but people, I need
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  Speaker 2: these if nobody else does, and I think others do too.
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  Speaker 2: Here are my reasons for why I'm committed to this
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  Speaker 2: kind of radical abstension from anything I know is going
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  Speaker 2: to present me with nudity. Jesus died to purify me.
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  Speaker 2: He died to purify his people. It is an absolute
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  Speaker 2: travesty of the Cross to treat it as though Jesus
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  Speaker 2: died only to forgive us for the sin of watching nudity,
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  Speaker 2: and not to purify us for the power not to
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  Speaker 2: watch it. He has blood bought power in his cross.
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  Speaker 2: He died to make us pure Titus two fourteen. He
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  Speaker 2: gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness,
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  Speaker 2: and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.
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  Speaker 2: If we choose to endorse, or embrace, or enjoy or
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  Speaker 2: pursue impurity, we take a spear and rem it into
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  Speaker 2: Jesus' side every time we do. He suffered to set
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  Speaker 2: us free from impurity. Number two, There is in the Bible,
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  Speaker 2: from beginning to end a radical call for holiness of
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  Speaker 2: mind and heart and life. He who called you is holy.
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  Speaker 2: You be holy in all your conduct Forspeter one Pint
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  Speaker 2: fifteen or two Corinthians seven to one. Since we have
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  Speaker 2: these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement
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  Speaker 2: of body and spirit, bringing holiness to complete in the
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  Speaker 2: fear of the Lord. Nudity in movies and photos is
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  Speaker 2: not holy and does not advance our holiness. It is
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  Speaker 2: unholy and impure. Number three. Jesus said, everyone who looks
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  Speaker 2: at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery
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  Speaker 2: with her in his heart. If your right eye causes
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  Speaker 2: you des sind, tear it out and throw it away.
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  Speaker 2: Seeing naked women causes men and women women seeing naked
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  Speaker 2: men to sin with their minds and their desires, and
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  Speaker 2: often with their bodies. If Jesus told us to guard
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  Speaker 2: our hearts by gouging out our eyes to prevent lust,
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  Speaker 2: how much more would he say? Don't watch it? Number four.
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  Speaker 2: Life in Christ is not mainly the avoidance of evil,
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  Speaker 2: but mainly the passionate pursuit of good Philippians for whatever's true,
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  Speaker 2: whatever's honorable, whatever's just, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is commendable,
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  Speaker 2: whatever is excellent, If there's anything worthy of praise, if
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  Speaker 2: there's anything commendable, think on these things. My father used
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  Speaker 2: to say, be so busy doing you don't have time
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  Speaker 2: to don't When people accuse us fundamentalists of being people
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  Speaker 2: with a bunch of don'ts, I've never felt that way.
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  Speaker 2: My life is not a constrained life. It is a
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  Speaker 2: free life. You were called to freedom, brothers Glatians five thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for
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  Speaker 2: the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Number five.
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  Speaker 2: I want to see and know God as fully as
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  Speaker 2: possible in this life and the next. Watching nudity is
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  Speaker 2: a huge hindrance to that pursuit. Blessed of the pure
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  Speaker 2: in heart, they shall see God. The defilement of the
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  Speaker 2: mind and heart by watching nudity dulls the heart's ability
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  Speaker 2: to see and enjoy God. I dare anyone to watch
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  Speaker 2: nudity and turn straight to God and give him thanks
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  Speaker 2: and enjoy him more because of what you just experienced.
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  Speaker 2: Number six. God calls women to adorn themselves in respectable
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  Speaker 2: apparel with modesty and self control. For Timothy to none
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  Speaker 2: when we pursue, or receive or embrace nudity in our entertainment,
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  Speaker 2: we are implicitly endorsing the sin of the women who
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  Speaker 2: sell themselves to this way and are therefore uncaring about
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  Speaker 2: their souls. They are disobeying for Timothy two nine, and
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  Speaker 2: we are saying that's okay. Number seven. Most Christians are
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  Speaker 2: hypocrites in watching nudity, because on the one hand, they
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  Speaker 2: say by their watching that this is okay, and on
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  Speaker 2: the other hand, they know deep down they would not
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  Speaker 2: want their daughter or their wife to be playing this role.
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  Speaker 2: That hypocrisy. Number eight. Nudity is not like murder and
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  Speaker 2: violence on the screen. That's make believe. Nobody really gets killed.
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  Speaker 2: But nudity is not make believe. These actresses are really
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  Speaker 2: naked in front of the camera telling doing exactly what
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  Speaker 2: the director says to do with their legs and their
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  Speaker 2: hands and their breasts. They're standing there and they're naked
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  Speaker 2: in front of millions of people for the world to see.
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  Speaker 2: Number nine. Sexual relations is a beautiful thing. God created
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  Speaker 2: it and pronounced it good. But it is not, as
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  Speaker 2: David Hubbard said when I was in seminary, it is
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  Speaker 2: not a spectator sport. It is a holy joy that
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  Speaker 2: is sacred in its secure place of tender life love.
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  Speaker 2: Men and women who want to be watched mark that
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  Speaker 2: word want. Men and women who want to be watched
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  Speaker 2: in their nudity are in the category with exhibitionists who
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  Speaker 2: pull down their pants at the top of escalators Number ten.
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  Speaker 2: There is no great film that needs nudity to add
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  Speaker 2: to its greatness. No, there isn't. There are creative ways
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  Speaker 2: to be true to reality without turning sex into a
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  Speaker 2: spectator sport, and without putting actors and actresses in morally
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  Speaker 2: compromised situations on the set. It is not great artistic
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  Speaker 2: integrity that is driving this. Underneath all of it is
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  Speaker 2: male sexual appetite driving this business, and following from that
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  Speaker 2: is peer pressure in the industry and the desire for
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  Speaker 2: ratings that sell. It's not art that puts nudity in.
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  Speaker 2: It's the appeal of prurience it sells. Number eleven. Christians
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  Speaker 2: do not watch nudity with a view to maximizing holiness.
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  Speaker 2: That's not what keeps them coming back to the shows.
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  Speaker 2: They know deep down that these TV shows or these
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  Speaker 2: movies are shot through with the commendation and exaltation of
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  Speaker 2: attitudes and actions that are utterly out of step with
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  Speaker 2: the death to self and with exaltation of Christ. Know
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  Speaker 2: what keeps those Christians coming back is the fear that
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  Speaker 2: if they took Christ at his word and made holiness
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  Speaker 2: as serious as I'm saying it is, they would have
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  Speaker 2: to stop seeing so many TV shows and so many movies.
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  Speaker 2: They would be viewed as freakish. And that today is
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  Speaker 2: the worst evil of all. To be seen as freakish
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  Speaker 2: is much greater evil than to be unholy. Last one,
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  Speaker 2: there is one biblical guideline that makes life very simple
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  Speaker 2: Romans fourteen twenty three. Whoever has doubts is condemned if
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  Speaker 2: he eats, because the eating is not from faith. Whatever
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  Speaker 2: does not proceed from faith is sin my paraphrase. If
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  Speaker 2: you doubt, don't that would alter the viewing habits of millions,
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  Speaker 2: And oh how sweetly they would sleep with their conscience.
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  Speaker 2: So I say it again, Join me in the pursuit
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  Speaker 2: of the kind of purity that sees God and knows
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  Speaker 2: the fullness of joy in his presence and the everlasting
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  Speaker 2: pleasure at his.
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  Speaker 1: Right hand Psalm sixteen eleven. Amen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: To that end, Christ died to make us peace. Titus
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  Speaker 1: two fourteen is pressure. It's in our Bible reading today,
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  Speaker 1: it's in the episode today, and I hope that text
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  Speaker 1: comes alive with greater relevance for you as you read.
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  Speaker 1: It matters for the battle against lust in this age
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  Speaker 1: of onscreen nudity, a theme we've talked about a lot
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  Speaker 1: in the past. For a digest of all those episodes,
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  Speaker 1: see the Apja book on pages three oh eight to
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  Speaker 1: three twenty nine. There's a lot to cover in that
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  Speaker 1: section on pages three oh eight to three twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John Well. This weekend, most of us
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  Speaker 1: planned to be at church, but not all of us
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  Speaker 1: at church will be in church though, because some will
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  Speaker 1: be busy serving unable to be in the main gathering.
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  Speaker 1: That's one of the realities of church life. So how
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  Speaker 1: much time serving at church and missing the gathering in
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  Speaker 1: church is too much? Is fifty to fifty too much?
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  Speaker 1: Is that too much of a split? It's a great
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  Speaker 1: question on the table. Next time, Antonio Ranky, We'll see
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  Speaker 1: you on Monday.