Foundational Biblical Principles Concerning – the Use of Modern Instruments of Communication

Introduction and Survey: The Pervasiveness of Modern Communication Tools

0:00 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, May 14, 2000, in the Adult Sunday School class at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now I'm sure that most of you are aware that generally Pastor Lamar Martin would be standing here in this hour in the adult class and leading us in our study of our confession of faith, but he is out in California today at the encouragement of his fellow elders to go and encourage the brethren there at Sunland, where Pastor Jose Torres labors in the work of the gospel. And as I had this opportunity and prayerfully considered what to do, and after interacting with my fellow elders, have decided to address in this hour something that I believe each of you, once we get into the subject matter, will be persuaded, is a matter of very pressing personal concern to each one of us, to one degree or another, and that without exception. But I want to begin the class by conducting a brief and an informal survey. There is nothing embarrassing or self-revealing in the questions I'm going to ask, and I would appreciate your spontaneous honesty by raising your hand as I ask you five very simple questions. Question number one.

1:31 How many of you have actually... How many of you have access to, and with some degree of frequency, use an instrument called a telephone?

1:41 All right. Thank you. Secondly, how many of you have access to, and with some degree of frequency, watch one or more TV sets in your home? Raise your hands.

1:55 Hold them up for a minute now. I want to make sure that we're scratching where everyone itches. Good. Thank you. Put your hands down.

2:01 Third question. How many of you have access...

2:04 How many of you have access to, and occasionally or frequently, use a VCR to watch a home video? All right. Keep your hands up so I can get a good look across. All right. Put your hands down.

2:18 Question number four. How many of you have access to, and occasionally or frequently...

2:24 See, nothing self-revealing. Maybe once a year, maybe five hours, ten hours a day. How many of you have access to, and occasionally or frequently, use...

2:34 A home computer or a computer, a PC, at home, work, school, or local library?

2:42 All right. Hold your hands for a minute. Okay. Now put them down.

2:46 Final question. How many of you have access to, and occasionally or frequently, use an e-mail or Internet service at home, work, school, or local library?

3:02 All right. You may put your hands down. And my mind is at rest. At all my hours of preparation...

3:06 At all my hours of preparation, are not barking up the wrong tree. All right? From the show of hands, it is quite clear that the vast majority of you, almost without exception, sitting here this morning, are to one degree or another, at one time or another, being influenced by or are influencing others by the use of what I'm calling these modern tools of communication. For that's what these elements are.

3:39 Telephone, TV, VCR, PC, use of e-mail or Internet service, these are all modern tools or means of communication. Neither you nor I have created these tools of communication. Rather, they are part of the accepted baggage of this stage in the development of our society here, in the United States, and, of course, in many other parts of the world. Furthermore, not only have we not created them or developed them, we have little to say about how they are used in society in general.

The Christian's Concern: Glorifying God in Communication

4:24 Now, there are many in society who are very committed to a very specific use of these tools, so that when, in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the indecency provisioning, and the provisions of the Communications Decency Act were unconstitutional, Penthouse, that wretched, foul pornographic magazine, posted the following on their website, and this is a direct quote, "...the Supreme Court struck a blow for liberty and cleared the way for Penthouse to build the ultimate empire of sex on the Internet." End quote. And recent statistics demonstrate, that there are probably at least 70 to 100,000 explicit sexually deviant sites on the web right now, and they increase at the tune of approximately 80 per day. Going to the other end of the spectrum, when you pick up your phone, when I pick up my phone seldom, is what we say being monitored as to whether it is proof, whether it is gossip, whether it is idle prattle, whether we are praying

5:40 with someone over the phone and using that to good ends. We have no control over those who set up their 900 numbers where people can have quote phone sex. These gadgets and tools that are part of our society, the baggage of our present cultural situation, are for the most part totally out of our sight as far as their use in the world. However, the child of God is deeply concerned with his own use, and likewise for the heads of families, the use to which these are put in his own home. No Christian, young or old, can be indifferent to such passages as Psalm 1, 1-3. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, and does not stand to nor stands in the way of sinners but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night Romans 12 2 be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God even in the use of telephone TV VCR personal computer use of email internet etc

7:05 Ephesians 4 17 to 24 is a marvelous statement of the fact that the child of God no longer wants to walk as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having their understanding darkened alienated from the life of God that is in them and the child of God is concerned that he may use these tools in a way that glorifies God and is productive of spiritual health and well-being so it's my purpose in this hour to set before you a biblical framework by which I trust each one of us will seriously frame his or her use or non-use of any or all of these tools that's my concern to set before you a biblical framework by which I trust each of you will seriously frame his or her use or non-use of these tools and a framework which parents will order and direct and monitor with assiduous hands-on control within your home the homes to which your children go the libraries into which they go dear folks I have a pressing pastoral burden I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so

8:32 I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so I'm persuading you to do so that hundreds and thousands of hours of prayerful biblical parental and pastoral instruction instruction in homeschooling Christian school and all the rest will go down the tubes relatively ineffective if we do not get hold of these modern means of communication and bring them captive to Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit I feel that passionately I feel it with every fiber of my being I've pleaded with God that I won't shoot my wad this morning I have nothing left for Sunday morning and Sunday night but I've said Lord if I do and you write these things on the hearts of your people in this place there's a sense in which I could go home and lie down and sleep the rest of the day feeling that perhaps we had bearded the devil in Christ's name and had seen him routed in great measure from that influence which he will otherwise always use with these tools outside of the harnessing influence of the word of Christ and the spirit of Christ now as time permits we're going to consider four foundational biblical principles those of you who sat under this ministry know that when we come to a practical concern and we're concerned about these modern

Principle 1: Instruments are Morally and Spiritually Neutral

10:01 means we're going to be concerned about the future of communication I have never tried to just go to the Bible and get a few proof texts and bring them directly to bear upon the issue the issue is set in larger contexts and if we are to think biblically and act biblically with regard to the particular concern we must address the larger context within which that particular concern is found and that's my purpose in our time together this morning four foundational biblical principles by which you and I ought to frame the manner the extent to which the circumstances within which we use these modern means of communication or we engage in non-use if I may use strange terminology and then two inescapable exhortations derived from those four foundational principles alright principle number one all of the modern instruments of communication are in themselves morally and spiritually neutral all of the modern means of communication are in themselves morally and spiritually neutral I'd even thought of having one of the folding tables brought in here the table with folding legs and put on it a telephone a VCR

11:31 a personal computer a computer and a few other of the communication gadgets maybe a beeper and ask any of you if you would be prepared to come up to the table and point to any one or more of those instruments and explain to us how it is that our fallenness in Adam has worked its way into the plastic and the glass and the circuit boards and into the computer chips well I don't think there'd be anyone that want to do that because it's just simply not reality there is absolutely nothing inherently sinful in your telephone your TV your VCR your computer your modem your Walkman your videos and whatever else comes within the category of a modern means of communication and according to the Bible when people try to call things sinful that are simply expressions of man's use of God's gifts man's commitment to fulfill the cultural mandate to subdue the earth to the glory of God God calls that demonic activity in 1st Timothy 4 1 to 5 Paul deals with those who were infiltrating the church and teaching that marriage with its sexual pleasure and certain foods with their gastronomical pleasure were inherently

12:59 sinful and in seeking to become more holy you were to avoid these material and physical pleasures in order to advance holiness and Paul says that is the doctrine of demons for it's an attack upon God as creator and God as the beneficent governor of his world had man not sinned sooner or later Adam and his progeny would have developed computers and videos and rockets and all of the other things that are harnessing the inheritance of God and the inherent powers and principles that God has woven into the fabric of his world now that immediately tells us that the way a Christian deals with these things is not to make any one or all of these things an inherent no-no if you're going to serve God if you're going to be spiritually healthy if you're going to be like Christ you won't have a telephone you won't have a TV you won't have a VCR no principle number one all of the modern instruments of communication are in themselves morally and spiritually neutral second principle now listen very carefully because I'm being exceedingly dogmatic but I want to prove my dogmatism from the Bible our use of any or all of the modern instruments of communication is

Principle 2: Our Use is Never Morally or Spiritually Neutral

14:28 never never never never never never never morally neutral or spiritually neutral the things in themselves are not inherently sinful they are morally neutral but our use of them is never morally or spiritually neutral every time I pick up a phone to receive a call or speak to someone or to make a call with my words has moral content and spiritual implications for Jesus said every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment for by thy words you will be justified and by your words you shall be condemned every time you push a button on your remote control and you allow images to come into your eyes those images are either morally pleasing to God or displeasing they are either productive of spiritual health or of spiritual ill health if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better for you to enter into life than having two eyes to go into

15:58 hell I have made a covenant with my eyes so that you will be viewed as one soul though you may not be seen in the light of here but I shall follow ye when ye meet in the light communication. What I see, what I say, and what I hear. Right? I see things, I hear things, and I use things to say, either verbally or with my fingers as I send an email. Now, is there anyone sitting

16:51 here who knows his Bible who would say that what we see, what we hear, and what we say is morally neutral? Absolutely not. And I could bring to pair many, many scriptures. Let me just bring several with regard to what I see. The Bible speaks of all that is in the world is put into three categories. And what's one of the three? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. First John 2, 15 to 17. Again, we read with regard to the matter of what we say.

17:36 But that which is good to edify, the whole teaching of James chapter 1, if anyone seems to be religious and bridles not his tongue, this man's religion is vain. Chapter 3 of James, the whole half of the chapter dealing with the tongue in relationship to true and saving religion. And what I hear, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Psalm 1, that has to do with what I hear. Genesis 3, the first chapter.

18:06 The temptation came by means of what Eve heard. And where the devil questions what God said. So you see, the whole issue, and this is what appalls me among professing Christians, something so elementary. They shift into a gear that says, well, in reality, suddenly, somehow, the issue of whether this is morally right, whether it pleases God in the light of his law or displeases him, whether it's sin or virtue, somehow that seems to get cauterized in the whole substructure of the mind and the spirit.

Principle 3: Duty to Avoid Moral Wrong and Spiritual Harm

18:44 And we'll make no progress in dealing righteously with our use of these things, unless we are absolutely persuaded that our use of any or all of these modern instruments of communication is never morally or spiritually neutral. Then principle number three. It is our duty, as God's creatures, and our determination as God's children, to avoid that which is morally wrong and spiritually harmful in our use or non-use of these modern instruments of communication. I'm sticking closely to my notes because I've tried to craft the statements that they reflect accurately the teaching of scripture. It is our duty as God's creatures. Anyone here who's not one of God's creatures? I didn't say, are you a child of God? Are you a Christian? Are you God's creature? I hope there's no one here who's

19:45 bought into the nonsense that you're just an animal, the higher end, perhaps maybe just the beginning of some greater and much higher end on the evolutionary process. I trust there's no one here who has such demonic faith to believe such nonsense. You're God's creature. And I'm asserting it's our duty as God's creatures and our determination as God's children, our duty has become our delightful determination, if we are God's children, that that which is morally wrong and spiritually harmful in our use or non-use of these instruments of communication. It's our duty as creatures. You are obligated to obey the law of God, and God never sought your consent in that. He has commanded you to love him supremely and to your neighbor selflessly. He has imposed upon you unilaterally those ten words from Sinai.

20:48 He has not imposed them to make life miserable for you. That's the way of blessedness in life. His laws are life-giving. His laws are life-directing. And for this reason, the Father in the Proverbs warns and commands his son to avoid laziness, bad companions, sleazy women, the abuse of alcohol. And he doesn't say, if and when you embrace the God of the covenant and become a true Israelite. No, as a father, he commands him. He sets before him his duty.

21:24 And I'm asserting that your duty as a creature of God is to avoid that which is morally wrong and spiritually harmful. In your use or non-use of these modern instruments of communication. And you can't cop out by saying, well, I'm not a Christian. It doesn't apply to me. Yes, as a creature, God says to you, whosoever looks to lust after a woman hath committed adultery already in his heart. God says to you as a creature that his soul hates those that love violence in Psalms. And so you can't cop out by saying, well, I'm not a Christian. Therefore, these standards don't apply to me. And so you can't cop out by saying, well, I'm not a Christian. Therefore, these standards don't apply to me. Yes, they do. But what is duty? And because of the unregenerate heart, duty that the unregenerate heart hates is the determination of God's children. God says, I'll take out the heart of stone, give them a heart of flesh, put

22:19 my law within them and cause them to keep my statutes and to do my judgments. Now, where in the word of God does God command us as his children to avoid that which is morally and spiritually detrimental? Well, just a few texts quickly. Matthew 26, 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing. You see, there is the predisposition to please God, but the flesh is weak. We must therefore do what? Watch and pray. We must be on our guard. We are not entering neutral territory when we pick up the phone. We have not suddenly gone back into Eden or fallen into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not

23:04 gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. We have not gone back into the abyss. There is a devil alive and well near your telephone, near your VCR, near your computer. And the moment we forget that, we're out of touch with reality and we've ceased to watch and to pray lest we enter into temptation. Romans 13, 14. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. It is not enough to say I'll wage warfare against you. It is not enough to say I'll wage warfare against you. It is not enough the commission of the sin i'm to wage warfare about unnecessarily putting myself in the place where i will be tempted to sin make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof you can't fulfill its lust till you first of all make provision that's why i've used the terminology our use or non-use of these modern means of communication some of us refuse to use some of them not because we regard them as inherently sinful but we know for us we would violate

24:13 romans 13 14 we would be making provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts and it is never right to do it and if you're called a legalist let you be called a legalist when you can pillow your head at night and say lord jesus by your grace i've made no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts fill the lust thereof all you'll be ignorant of this or that my ignorance won't damn me but providing for the flesh may romans 8 13 if you live after the flesh you will die but if you by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh you shall live who does the mortifying we do in the strength and power of the spirit but we do the mortifying that's why the imagery of matthew 5 27 to 30 is so helpful if your eye offend you pluck it out did you ever see anyone gouging his eye out whistling dixie saying no that's a lovely pastime gouging eyes out try it lovely if your hand offends you cut it off you ever see anyone whack his hand off saying this is the finest thing i've done in three weeks i just enjoy whacking my hand off and then taking the bloody thing and throwing it cast it from me

25:36 mortification is painful because it's our activity upon our flesh 17 and we'll see you next week and then기를 makes another beast in his race we will determine his cause andosos masters or gods so that the our appetites, but it is nonetheless essential not just to be a quote spiritual Christian. Jesus said in that Matthew passage and in four other parallel passages, it's a matter of life and death, heaven and hell. It's better to enter into life maimed than having two hands and two eyes to go into hell where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. Colossians 3, 5 and following, put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth. And then he lists all of these issues. First Peter 2, 11, I beseech you as strangers and sojourners abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul. There's the principle in the light of the fact that these things are in themselves morally neutral, but our use of them is never morally or spiritually neutral. We must by the grace of God be persuaded that in the presence of God, this is the principle that we must labor with. Our duty as God's creatures and our determination of God's children is to

Principle 4: Duty to Pursue Moral Right and Spiritual Helpfulness

26:51 avoid that which is morally wrong and spiritually harmful in our use or non-use of these modern instruments of communication. Now we come to principle number four. It is our duty as God's creatures. And our determination as God's children to pursue that which is morally right and spiritually helpful. It is our duty as God's creatures and our determination as God's children to pursue that which is morally right and spiritually helpful. You see what I'm doing? I'm trying to take the biblical motif of put off, put on. The old Puritans view of sanctification, mortification and vivification.

27:38 What I put off, what I put on. I reckon myself dead, but alive unto God in Christ. I'm trying to be sensitive to the whole structure of biblical ethics in the New Testament. There is the negative, there is the positive. There are the thou shalt nots, and there are the thou shalts. So I'm our duty as God's creatures and our determination as God's children to pursue that which is morally right and spiritually harmful. helpful. It's your duty as a creature. God says to you as a creature, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. That's your obligation. God says to you as a creature, honor your father and your

28:24 mother. That's what God says to you as a creature. Whether you like it or not, that's what God commands you. And all the other commands, gospel commands, he commands all men everywhere to repent. God commands you to turn from that which is morally wrong and to turn to him and to a life that is morally and ethically pleasing in his sight. But what is the duty we all have as God creatures is the determination we have as God's children. Hebrews 12, 14, follow after peace with all men and the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. First John 3, 3, every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself.

29:03 He is pure. There is not only a turning away from that which is morally and spiritually wrong and negative, but there is the pursuit of righteousness. Second Peter 3, 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First Peter 1, 15, be ye holy for I am holy. Philippians 4, 8, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think, dwell on these things. It is our duty as God's creatures and our determination as God's children to pursue that which is morally right and spiritually helpful. Now those are the four foundational principles. Now based on them, I want to address what I believe, I believe, I may not carry your conscience, I believe are two inescapable exhortations that we must give to ourselves even as I seek to exhort you.

Exhortation 1: Individual Biblical Framework for Personal Use

30:10 Please turn this cassette over to continue the message. I believe are two inescapable exhortations that we must give to ourselves even as I seek to exhort you. Exhortation one, I plead with you, this is to you as an individual, I plead with you to establish and maintain a biblical framework to determine the minimum of your personal possession and use of any or all of these modern instruments of communication that for you is morally right and spiritually healthy. I'm not saying that you go home today and write up a manual how people in Trinity Church should use their telephones, use their PCs. No, my exhortation is this, I plead with you, the youngest to the oldest. That's why we've asked you teenagers to come in. This is your world.

31:13 You want to make me seem like a dunce? Just take two minutes and start using all your computer jargon. You're looking at someone who is basically a computer illiterate. I know the equivalent of the letter A, M, and maybe Z, and that's it.

31:28 And when I even get PCs for dummies, they don't know how dumb some of us dummies are. They use terminology to explain how to use the crazy thing, that only you techies know. It's not my language. It ain't been part of my life, and it's so frustrating.

31:47 I have a relatively good vocabulary in many areas, but when I come to that, it's just the way I feel. So, this is critical for some of you. This is your world. It will never be my world.

32:03 I'll go to my grave.

32:06 I better not prophesy. Most likely, I'll go to my grave. A computer illiterate, but I hope I go to my grave with a good conscience and an unsullied testimony of what it is to be a man of God walking with integrity.

32:21 So, I plead with you to establish and maintain a biblical framework to determine your personal possession and use of these modern instruments of communication that is for you morally right and spiritually healthy. You need to ask questions such as these. Do I need this thing? Do I need this thing to do my God-given duty?

32:45 Do I need this thing that is morally neutral? Do I need this thing to fulfill my God-given duty?

32:57 Not does society say you must have it. Not because your peers would be inclined to think you weird if you don't have it. Not because you're fearful you'll be called a dweeb or a dork if you don't have it. Not do all the others, but because it's TBC, have it and use it.

33:18 That's not the question.

33:21 Wouldn't God, the words of John 21, would be burned in our hearts. The Lord makes his will known to Peter and says, follow me. And Peter turns around and says, Lord, what shall this man do? And the Lord says, what is that to thee?

33:36 Translated into contemporary jargon, it does no violence to the sense of the original. Mind your business, Peter. Follow me. Follow me.

33:45 What he does is none of your business. And when it comes to establishing this, you've got to put on holy blinders that block out everything but God and your Bible and your path of duty as marked out in the word of God and in the providence of God. A man may determine that for his own soul's sake, he does not want to be on the internet at home. The privacy of his own study leaves him too vulnerable for a few clicks away from that person.

34:17 That which is raunchy and vile and filthy and he knows that raunch and vileness and filthy are like a positive polarity in his heart and the negative polarity of a few clicks away, he'll damn himself. But he goes to work and to fulfill his God-given task, he has to use a computer that has access to the internet. That's his duty there. It's not his duty at home.

34:42 You see what I'm saying? He can trust God for grace only to use the internet. Only to use the internet. Only to use those aspects in his work that his employer demands of him and in which he can glorify God.

34:56 But he knows he is not morally strong enough to expose himself unnecessarily to the same temptation at home. Well, that's inconsistent. Inconsistent with what?

35:12 In the workplace, he has biblical directives that tell him he must work with all of his might, He must respect his employer's demands. And if they are not sinful in themselves, he may find himself using things that he chooses not to use at all. That's the question you've got to wrestle through. We can't give you a little booklet that says the holy way to use telephone and TV and VCR.

35:41 But you must ask these questions of yourself. Can I really afford the price to purchase it? And maintain it.

35:53 People just assume, well, you know, 30 bucks a month for this kind of service. Well, can you justify that before Almighty God? If your use does not warrant that investment, when a little trip to the local library to investigate this or that that is part of your God-given duty as a parent, as a worker, and you don't need to be spent, you've got to ask that kind of question. Am I obeying?

36:23 Here's a critical question. Am I obeying the biblical injunction of Ephesians 5, 15 to 17? Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

36:34 Redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. I've had mature Christians tell me that they're appalled at how quickly they can waste one or two hours surfing the net.

36:49 You've got to ask that question. I can't ask and answer it for you. You've got to ask and answer it before the living God yourself. Am I cultivating a good conscience?

37:02 Acts 26, 14. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense to God and toward man. You young people, are you cultivating a good conscience? Or are you looking over your shoulder wondering, well, if mom and dad come in my room and see what I've got on the screen, and so you're learning how to be sneaky and devious, and to have a bloodied conscience?

37:26 You've got to ask that question and answer it. You go to the library. What do you bring up?

37:33 I'm amazed at how computer literate ten-year-old kids can be. And they're downloading garbage in local libraries by the tens of thousands. And don't you parents think your kids are exempt because you homeschool them and you send them to Trinity Christian School? You're naive.

37:54 Pathetically. Pathetically. Pathetically. Naive.

37:59 Is my use consistent with watchfulness, with keeping a good conscience? Is it consistent with the command, Matthew 4, 7, you shall not tempt the Lord your God? What is tempting God? It's when you put yourself in a place of unnecessary need for the intervention of God to keep you from harm.

38:21 That's tempting God. The devil said to the Lord, throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple. The angels will pick you up. Jesus said, It is written, You shall not make trial of the Lord your God.

38:31 You know you're vulnerable to wasting time in front of your computer. Perhaps not watching stuff that is vile, but simply wasting time. And you're powerless.

38:42 Then don't put yourself in front of your computer. Without a decided goal and a time frame to accomplish it and say, Well, God will help me. No, you're tempting God. If you put yourself in the place where you need divine intervention, if duty does not take you to that place, that's tempting God.

39:00 And Jesus, quoting from Deuteronomy, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. I plead with every single one of you to establish and maintain. And the maintenance means it's not static. It's ongoing.

39:14 Responsibilities may change. Relationships may change. The knowledge of your own heart. So when I say establish and maintain, I don't mean maintain what you decided was fitting for you two years ago, but what's fitting for you today.

39:28 Right now. And that's why it's dynamic and ongoing. I plead with you. Establish and maintain a biblical framework to determine your personal possession and use of these modern instruments of communication that for you is morally right and spiritually healthy.

39:49 Let me give you a quote from John Brown. Generally speaking, it is the duty of the Christian carefully to keep out of the way of temptation, to avoid everything which can be avoided consistent with duty, which may afford an opportunity to the great enemy or his agents to assail him with solicitations to sin. It is madness to hold parley with the devil or uncalled on to provoke him to combat such unnecessary tamperings, such self-confident conflicts. Generally, the end in sin and in shame because the writer to the Proverbs says, who so trust in his own heart is a fool. Your conscience speaking to you. I pray God it is. I pray God it is second exhortation.

Exhortation 2: Parental Biblical Framework for the Home

40:52 This comes to you who are parents. I plead with each parent to establish and maintain a biblical framework for the possession and use of the. These modern means of communication within the home, school, library, and among your child's friends that is both morally right and spiritually healthy. I'm pleading with you parents to establish and maintain a biblical framework regarding these things that you will impose and administer.

41:33 This is on administration. In your home, in the school setting, in the use of the local library, and in any exposure to any of these that your kids have in anyone else's home. I beg you, don't think the devil will leave them alone because you have family worship, homeschool, Christian school, and take them to Trinity Church. He doesn't respect any of that.

42:06 And if he can find through your lack of watchfulness and your naivety and your laziness that he can pick your kids off with the internet, with phone sex, and with phone relationships, and email relationships, and the watching of videos that will damn them. He'll use it and undo everything else you've sought to put in them. And if you think he has any other end in view, you don't know your Bible. He goes about as a roaring lion, not seeking whom he may scare, whom he may bite, whose arm he may crunch.

42:48 He's going about seeking whom he may swallow down. And every day you look on your kids and say, they're bait for the devil. He wants to swallow them. And if he's going to swallow them, by God's grace, it won't be because I have carelessly.

43:09 He allowed the influence of the telephone, the TV, the VCR, the PC, access to internet and email. I will do all within my power to see the devil does not get them by these means. And if after all of that he gets them still, the pill of your head with a broken heart, but at least you'll have a good conscience that the indictment of Eli is not laid at your feet. He restrained not.

43:40 His sons, parents, I beg you, I plead with you, I stand at this point in my ministry and I see perhaps the greatest threat to a lifetime of investment in this assembly are the very issues that we're addressing this morning. The passion is not painted passion. It's the built up pressure of trying to be aware, though I'm computer illiterate, I'm not illiterate about how the computer is being used. I wouldn't know how to access a website, but I do my reading of those who plow through the garbage and responsibly report how a mother comes in shocked at what she sees on the screen of her daughter's PC in her bedroom. Because instead of typing in such and such dot and then three letter words that should have taken her to Washington, she put dot com and it brought her to a place where she could write.

44:48 It is established that these who run the porno sites are constantly seeking how to have addresses that will come as the mistake of someone who's constantly putting in dot org and they put dot com and there it is. And when they seek to exit one thing, they go to another. There's a book coming out by Adonna Rice Hughes in September of this year called Kids Online. And some of the things that she reports as a responsible researcher in this is frightening.

45:28 Internet pornography is now impacting literally millions of Americans. Among those who claim to be born again and are married, the numbers are about identical to the national average. One in five Americans admit they visited an adult site in the Internet. So many pastors feel they can't talk to anyone, said Roger Charman.

45:48 Focus on the family pastoral ministries department. Over two-thirds of their calls from pastors are pastors hooked on porno by the Internet and by videos. I've read the stories and they are heartbreaking.

46:06 Parents, in God's name, I beg you, throw a protective net around your ears. Now the answer is not to just throw out the phone, throw out the TV, throw out the VCR, throw out the computer and go form yourself a nice little Christian commune where you're not going to be defiled by the world. No. No.

46:25 That's not biblical. But for some of you, for whom Internet access is not a moral necessity, you may wish to discontinue your service. And when there is need for that, to take the time to go to someone else who with good conscience can have it, when it's too much of a stumbling block, if not to you. Do you men remember what you were like between ages 11 and 12 and 16 when all you thought about was, Do you men remember what you were like between ages 11 and 12 and 16 when all you thought about was, sex?

46:59 Do you remember? Now don't tell me it wasn't true.

47:04 It was. That's where your boys are. And now it's fashionable for girls to be there. When I grew up, only boys lusted for girls.

47:13 It wasn't the end thing for girls to lust. But now girls can look with leering eyes and say, oh, he's on. He's buffed. Got tight buns.

47:23 That's the climate our kids are being reared in. At a time when everything in them is so vulnerable. And you're plopping them down with a private use of a computer in their own room with internet access? God have mercy on you, parents.

47:40 I plead with you that before God, you determine that you will establish standards that reflect Joshua 24, 15. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's our determination. Let me give you a few cardinal don'ts.

Cardinal Don'ts: Protecting Children from Harmful Media

48:04 And I make no apologies for the don'ts.

48:08 In a few minutes we have remaining. Don't permit secluded, unmonitored use of any, any of these means in your home or the homes of others.

48:23 You say, it's not right to let the kids take the portable phone in the bedroom and shut the door? If you have a child that has manifested over a long period of time, emerging Christian maturity and discernment, in the choice of friends, the kind of interaction he or she may have, that may be permissible. It may be. I'm not setting up a new rule.

48:46 But I'm saying, for many of you, it's foolish to give your kids unmonitored use of the phone and unmonitored use of the TV. You don't need to have cable TV. I don't have it. I'm one of those who before God can't have it.

49:03 I won't have it. Do I legislate for you? No. But I legislate for me.

49:08 And for my house. But there's enough filth over mainline television, in the so-called family hours, from 7.30 to 9.30 or 10 o'clock any night, over the standard broadcasting things, to fill your kids with images and thoughts that will neutralize everything you're trying to put into them that's noble and right and godly and spiritual.

49:32 Don't allow unmonitored use of any of these means. I'm appalled at how some people in Trinity Church pop videos in the VCS, and little children see things their eyes ought never to watch.

49:48 God have mercy on you. Images stick. Images stick. I've got images on my brain that go back over 50 years.

50:00 You're going to let the devil paint images in the minds of your children? Words that will echo in the chambers of their ears that are never heard in your home, but you let them come in? And try to think of some illustrations. What would you think of a parent in Trinity Church?

50:16 Who would allow a swearing, brawling, unprincipled, uncouth man in the house to go blunderbussing about and cussing? You say, never, never. All you do is let the television come on. They see him.

50:30 Smackdown on UP9. One of the most popular television shows now.

50:37 The camera pans. The thousands of kids in Madison swear God. Watching this violence by crude, uncouth, godless, foul mouth. Soft, amoral men and women.

50:52 Can you let your kids watch that? To have a parent of Trinity Church say, well, yeah, that movie was pretty good. Yeah, it did have one or two scenes. And to hear the child pipe in and say, oh, yes, obviously they saw it.

51:07 Dear people of God, nobody, nobody's going to be ignorant and irrelevant if they don't watch modern Hollywood movies of any kind.

51:17 Oh, but it's G-rated. I had G-rated. What's the whole philosophy? It is new.

51:22 New age-ism. It is humanism that is made attractive by the animated figures. Wake up, parents. That stuff is not morally neutral.

51:34 The TV is. The VCR is. The tape is. But not what comes over it.

51:42 Hollywood has an agenda. And I'll clue you. It ain't repentance and faith and holiness of life.

51:49 It would kill Hollywood in a week. And when Hollywood comes with its smiling, face-to-face, it's the devil coming to Eve. I'm your friend and your benefactor. I want to help you.

52:07 Some of you are going to be mad at me. I don't care. I don't care. I hope some of you will say, oh, God, I've been asleep.

52:17 I've been asleep. I've been asleep. Don't allow unmonitored use. You wouldn't allow a pedophile or a rapist to talk to your daughter, your son on the phone, would you?

52:31 Don't let them get into a chat room. I've read the horror stories. It's happened to Christian kids using their e-mails. And then they get into chat rooms.

52:41 And they think they're developing a wholesome relationship. And they're ruined.

52:49 And my final, final word of a negative counsel is don't allow these things to make you and your children visual image addicts.

53:02 This applies to the VCR, the television, the computer. It's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. It's a tragic thing to live long enough to see a generation that's become addicted to visual images, cannot think imaginatively, cannot think creatively.

53:20 And that's why, as I said from this platform a few weeks ago, we have a church in the area that says because we have a visual community and society, we can no longer have preaching central. We've got to have multimedia technology and a stage. With all of its professional lighting. And all of the rest.

53:42 Why? Because you can't reach a generation that's addicted to visual images by words. Well, my friend, God ain't changed his way of rescuing sinners. And it's by the preaching of the word.

53:55 Not by mime. And not by drama. And not by Christian films. And not by videos.

54:01 And certainly not by veggie tales.

54:05 It's by the preaching of the word. Don't make it impossible for somebody to carry on the legacy of this church based on the preaching of the word. Because you've helped create a generation that can't think without visual images. You will have cut the throat of the life of Trinity Church for unborn generations.

Conclusion and Prayer

54:31 Well, dear people, I've bared my heart. And I trust God will make the word of exhortation and instruction effective in all of us. Let's pray. Oh, our God,

54:51 what can we say when we see our nation being pushed and dragged and seduced headlong into destruction by these tools that have had such effective use in many instances for the advancement of the gospel and for the betterment of society. But we know that there is a wicked one who is not neutral in his view of these things. And we pray that you would help us by your grace and power to suffer the word of exhortation. Thank you that your word is the sufficient rule of faith and practice for every facet of life.

55:31 And we pray that our hearts will be submissive to it. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.