Purity in a Pornographic World (Part 2)

In the last post I talked about the problem of keeping a pure heart in today’s visually driven world that bombards us with lewd and graphic images. With the Internet, pornography has never been more easily accessible and seducing. Pornography is a moral plague upon our land that is ruining lives, marriages, and public morals. According to the U.S. Justice Department, “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.” [U.S Department of Justice, Post Hearing Memorandum of Points and Authorities, at I, ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824 (1996)]. But if you are expecting our U.S. government to help us in this battle you will be sorely disappointed. When President Barack Obama was elected he quickly nominated David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General of the United States. David Ogden as a lawyer was described as a First Amendment extremist and one of the leading legal defenders of the pornography industry. He even argued against laws against child pornography. So the pornography industry now has a friend in the high office in the Department of Justice. What a sad state of affairs. What kind of a message is President Obama sending to America families with this nomination?

Clearly then we have only one place to look for help in this battle for purity in our world and it is to God and His Word. In the last post I suggested that if as a Christian you are struggling with this issue the first step towards victory is to confess and forsake all known sin (please see part 1 from last week). The next step is:

2. Refuse to entertain any vain or ungodly thoughts. Unfortunately because of our sinful and corrupt nature, as well as the outward images fed to us, we must come to realize that we will at times have a vain or ungodly thought placed in our mind. Like soldiers storming a fortress they will seek to invade and set up a filthy beachhead. Satan will be sure to cast fiery darts our way at unguarded moments. We must make a determination that at that moment we will take that thought into captivity by the Word of God. At that very strategic moment we must pray asking for God to give us grace to cast the dart aside and bring to our mind Scripture. This is where is the Word of God is indispensable. Memorizing Scripture not only feeds the soul and builds an inward resistance and shield to these visual grenades, but God’s Word also comes to the rescue when the heart is being attacked. Like white bloods cells that kill inner infection God’s Word can put to death the spiritual bacteria injected by the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is simply no way to overestimate the value of hiding God’s Word in the heart. In short I am encouraging you to do what King Solomon advised to his son, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life”  (Proverbs 4:23). When we talk about the heart normally we are referring to the physical organ in our body that pumps blood, but when the Bible speaks of the heart it normally is referring to our mind or the thinking process. For example Proverbs 23:7 says “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” Your are the sum total of your thoughts. Your character is determined by what you think in your heart. The Psalmist said in Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer.” So keeping the heart is a matter of guarding your thoughts.

The Puritan John Flavel wrote a classic work on this subject presently titled Keeping the Heart. I love reading the Puritans and Flavel is one of my favorites. If you want a life changing read I encourage you to pick up The Mystery of Providence. That book truly changed my outlook regarding the providence of God. It helped me learn to discern the hand of God at work all around me. Keeping the Heart is another of Flavel’s books that I am presently reading and digesting. Admittedly, the Puritans are at times hard to read. One must develop a knack for it. But the spiritual insight and depth that one receives is well worth the effort. I find when I have finished reading a Puritan work that most modern books one might find in a Christian bookstore seem very superficial. In Keep the Heart Flavel calls the heart the “faculty of the soul.” He rightly proposed that just as our physical health is dependent upon the soundness of the heart, even so the state of the whole man depends upon the condition of the soul. He likens the heart to a fortress under attack. According to Flavel a man will diligently guard his fortune, and his home which are of temporal value; but how carelessly do most men guard that which is of eternal value, their very soul.

In the beginning of the book Flavel lays out six acts to keep the heart carefully. He defines keeping the heart as preserving it from sin which disorders it, and maintaining that spiritual and gracious frame which fits it for a life of communion with God. Flavel presupposes a previous work of regeneration where salvation has taken place and God has given the heart a new spiritual bent and inclination.

Act 1: Frequent observation of the frame of the heart, turning in and examining how the case stands with it. Flavel calls upon the believer to constant examine the state of their heart citing Psalm 77:6 “I commune with mine own heart.” He declares, “The heart can never be kept until its case is examined and understood.”

Act 2: Deep Humiliation for heart-evils and disorders. Flavel points to instances in Scripture when God called upon His people to humble themselves because of their sin. Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart (2 Chronicles 32:26). “So the upright heart cannot be at rest till it has wept out its troubles and poured out its complaints before the Lord.”

Act 3: Earnest supplication and instant prayer for heart-purifying and rectifying grace, when sin has defiled and disordered it. Again Flavel cites many instances in Scripture when saints cried out for cleansing and purifying. When they did it normally included great emotion. He suggests that we should really not cease confessing until we feel some brokenness of heart for sin.

Act 4: Imposing strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more accurately with God, and avoid the occasions whereby the heart may be induced to sin. Simply put Flavel is calling for believers to enact spiritual disciplines in their life. He wrote, “Well-composed, advised, and deliberate vows are, in some cases, of excellent use to guard the heart against some special sin.” Develop some rules to live by. Job is an excellent example of this “I made a covenant with my eyes, how then shall I think upon a maiden.” If your are unable to keep yourself accountable through such disciplines develop an accountability with another trusted believer.

Act 5: Constant holy jealousy over our own hearts in order to preserve us from sin. Flavel is encouraging a vigilant watch over our hearts. The moment we sense a stirring in our passions the soul  must discover and suppress them with the spiritual means God has given us.

Act 6: Realizing God’s presence with us and setting the Lord always before us. This principle is to me the most powerful of all in the battle for purity. We must always remain conscious of the fact that God is watching, listening, and examining our heart. There is no sequestered spot from the presence of God. If we truly believe He is omniscient and omnipresent it will change how we live. We must live Coram Deo, before the face of God. Flavel wrote, “When the eye of faith is fixed upon the eye of God’s omniscience, we dare not let out our thoughts and affections to vanity.” 

May God bless you and grant you grace in your battle to live a pure life before the face of God.

  
 

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