Redeeming Sexuality

The Ten Commandments

1. One God

2. No idols

3. Revere His Name

4. Remember to Rest

5. Honor Parents

6. No murder

7. No adultery

8. No stealing

9. No lying

‌10. No coveting

Exodus 20:14 “14 “You shall not commit adultery.”

To commit adultery, or not to commit adultery –

for hundreds of readers in the 17th century, the answer depended on which bible they consulted, after an unfortunate error in a certain edition of the text omitted to include a vital “not”.

Known as the “Wicked” Bible, the text, printed in 1631, leaves the word “not” from the seventh commandment.

This means that amid exhortations that

“thou shalt not kill”, and

“thou shalt not steal”,

readers are also informed that “thou shalt commit adultery”.

One thousand copies of the text, which also came to be known as the Adulterous or Sinners’ Bible,

were printed, with the printing error only discovered a year later.

When it was uncovered, the printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas were summoned by order of Charles I to court, and found guilty.

They were also fined £300, and their printing licence removed,

with the entire print run of the offending text called in,

and the majority destroyed.

Around 10 copies are believed to still exist today,

One was auctioned off in 2018 for a total of $56,250

The seventh commandment, then, is about much more than a few sexual adultery.

It’s about safeguarding the gift of marriage and promoting the flourishing of the family.

In other words, the seventh commandment forbids more than just cheating on your spouse.

If we read the Bible oT and NT we can see that it is about a whole category of sexual in and sexual passions

But before we hone in on one narrow area of the category of same sex attraction, lest see some foundational scriptures.

There are two sides to this controversy.

There are those who see the Bible as condemning all forms or homosexuality.

That is the traditional view.

On the other side are those that see homosexuality,

either in committed monogamous relationships or in all forms, as acceptable.

Throughout this message I will refer to those of the pro-homosexual orientation as the revisionists.

That is not to demean them but it is to accurately describe them.

For more than 2,000 years of church history the church uniformly condemned the practice of homosexuality as sin because everyone understood that as a clear teaching of the Bible.

For 2,000 years this was never considered a debatable subject.

It is only in recent history that this discussion surfaced.

Those who want to affirm homosexuality or homosexual unions are revisionists.

They are leaving the clear and uniform understanding of the church and the Scriptures for the last 2,000 years.

They are assuming all great biblical minds from the last 2,000 years of church history — Augustine, Luther, and Calvin just to name a few — read their Bibles wrong.

Today we discovered something they missed.

We are smarter than they were.

That is a scary claim.

C.S. Lewis called that chronological snobbery. When you think you are smarter than the great biblical minds that preceded you for the last 2,000 years, that is a scary claim. That is a recipe for heresy.

God defines and defends marriage and sexuality.

Genesis 1 and 2 — What does the creation of man, woman and marriage teach us about homosexuality? The first chapters of Genesis are important.

In these first chapters we learn about God, the creation of the earth, the creation of mankind, the creation of sexuality and the marriage.

The rest of the Bible continually references the opening chapters of Genesis as the God-given template for our lives.

Genesis 1 and 2 teach us God’s plan for gender, sexuality and marriage.

The creation of woman shows she is the only possible marital and sexual companion for a man.

Genesis 2:21 “21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.”

Adam was made from the dust of the ground.

Eve was made from Adam’s side.

A rib was taken out of Adam to make Eve.

Adam was made intentionally incomplete.

The only thing that could complete him was the corresponding piece in the puzzle that was taken out of him, that is, a woman.

Another man cannot complete a man.

Another woman cannot complete a woman.

Look at how Adam celebrated Eve’s arrival.

Genesis 2:23 “23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.””

Adam was thrilled Eve was not another animal.

Adam was also thrilled Eve was not another man.

Adam was thrilled Eve is a woman.

She was the only piece that could complete him.

She was what fits his needs.

She was his equal and his opposite.

Two men and two women cannot, by definition, complete each other.

Only two people of the opposite gender can fulfill the procreative purpose of marriage.

Genesis 1:28 “28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

God created Adam and Eve to be equals but opposites.

Part of the reason he created a man and a woman equal but opposite is so they can come together and have children.

Children are the natural result of a healthy marriage.

I realize not all married couples can have children.

That is an unfortunate consequence of sin.

The point remains — the only way to conceive children and for the human race to continue is for a man and a woman to come together.

Two men and two women coming together cannot make children.

A homosexual union cannot complete the procreative purpose of marriage.

Homosexual couples cannot be fruitful and multiply.

If Godly offspring is one of the purposes of marriage, and there is no conceivable way for a homosexual couple to have children between them, they are violating one of the purposes of marriage.

Some revisionist authors don’t think the one man and one woman marriage declaration of Genesis is enduring.

They say one man and one woman is the normal way marriage is done but it is not the normative way all marriages should be done.

What do you think?

Is Genesis just a marriage recommendation or is it a marriage declaration for all of time?

Is marriage always to be heterosexual and is one of the purpose of marriage to produce children?

Let’s find the answer.

Jesus and Paul claimed Genesis doesn’t just make heterosexual marriage normal, it makes it normative.

In Jesus’ day there was a marriage debate.

Some religious leaders taught easy divorce

while others taught hard divorce. They said a husband and wife should stay committed.

One day the religious leaders approached Jesus to ask him if he was for easy divorce or hard divorce.

Jesus referenced Genesis 2:24 for his answer.

Matthew 19:4-6 “4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Jesus went to Genesis 2:24 and said Genesis gives the foundation for all marriages for all of time.

The husband and wife God joined together, don’t let man tear apart.

Genesis’ words on marriage are normative for all of us, not just normal for some of us.

Just like Jesus, Paul went back to Genesis 2:24 when he talked about marriage and claimed it is defined by God to be one man and one woman.

It is normative for all of time, not just normal most of the time.

Eph 5:31-33 “31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Jesus, Paul and Peter said the one man and one woman pattern of marriage in Genesis is the enduring pattern for all of time.

We should be very cautious when it comes to redefining marriage and claiming it can also be between two men or two women.

Those who redefine marriage to include same- sex unions directly contradicting Genesis, Jesus, Peter and Paul.

That is one bad chess move.

Jesus and Paul upholds God’s view of marriage and sexuality.

There are four main words in dealing with sexuality that Paul and Jesus uses, i just want to look at three of them.

Three Words

Many say that Jesus really never talked much about homosexuality.

yes and no.

one reason why was because it was accepted by the all the jews at that time that it was abnormal and wrong. so since it was accepted that it was wrong there was not a huge reason to teach on it.

You could also say that Jesus did not teach on child or spousal abuse, why? Because everyone knew it was wrong.

In fact Jesus did teach on sexuality in the Sermon on the Mount and even in other time throughout His mimisty.

Porneia, Sexual Immorality

Mark 7:21–23 “21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.””

The phrase “sexual immorality” translates the Greek word porneia,

which the leading New Testament lexicon defines porneia as “unlawful sexual intercourse, prostitution, unchastity, fornication.”

Similarly, the New Testament scholar James Edwards states that porneia

“can be found in Greek literature with reference to a variety of illicit sexual practices, including adultery, fornication, prostitution, and homosexuality.

In the Old Testament

it occurs for any sexual practice outside marriage

between a man and a woman that is prohibited by the Torah.”

So porneia was a broad term,

referring to any sexual sin prohibited by the law of Moses.

In condemning “sexual immorality”

Jesus was forbidding every kind of deviation from the created order.

It’s simply not accurate to say that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality or other contemporary controversies,

because porneia would have covered much more than marital infidelity.

Like all first-century Jews,

Jesus would have understood that the seventh commandment covered a multitude of sexual sins.

Homosexuality

Two other New Testament passages also speak clearly about homosexuality. We will take them together because they are similar.

Arsenokoitais. This is an important word, one that was apparently coined by the apostle Paul. Look at how the word is used in

1 Timothy 1:8-11 “8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality,[arsenokoitai]enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

You will notice I added English transliterations of two Greek words.

The revisionists argue these words on homosexuality are referring to violent, non- consensual sexual behavior, not the committed consensual same-sex relations we know today.

So they say that since the Bible is not talking about committed monogamous relationships, but only violent and abusive relationships,

it is ok for their to be same sex marriages.

There are several problems with this....

First

Notice how Paul is running through the second table of the law, the last six commandments dealing with our horizontal relationships with one another.

(5th)for those who strike their fathers and mothers, (6th)for murderers, 10 (7th)the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality,(8th)enslavers, (9th) liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Paul does not introduce this as a violation of the 1st or second commandments further demonstrates that Idolatry (false worship through male temple prostitution) is not the primary focus in Paul’s thought.

By using the word-pair the sexually immoral with men who practice homosexuality,

to represent the 7th commandment, it seems that Paul is using very specific words to condemn both

heterosexual and homosexual acts and lusts.

Actions and passions.

Let’s look more closely at the two phrases included under the seventh commandment.

The phrase “sexual immorality” translates the Greek word pornois, related to the word porneia that we’ve already examined.

The phrase “men who practice homosexuality” is also only one word in Greek: arsenokoitais.

The first time we see this word in Greek literature is when Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 6, and then here again in 1 Timothy 1.

The word refers to something broader than the man-boy love (pederasty) that was common in the ancient world.

Paul would have used the word paiderastesif that’s all he had in mind.

Arsenokoitais The word is a compound word. It literally means men-bedders.

Paul literally made this word up to describe homosexuals as men who bring other men to bed.

He didn’t make this word up out of thin air. I

n Paul’s day, the common language was Greek.

The Jews had a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament they used for those who were rusty in Hebrew,

just like we have an English translation of our Bible because we are rusty in our Greek and Hebrew.

In the Torah the prohibitions against homosexuality in Leviticus 18 and 20.

The Greek translation of those verses describes a homosexual as a man who takes other men to bed.

Paul literally took the key Greek words out of Leviticus 18 and combined them into one word.

Everybody that heard Paul call homosexuals men-bedders immediately had their mind return to Leviticus 18 and 20.

If Paul wanted Timothy, and the rest of us,

to know that only violent forms of homosexuality were unacceptable to God why would he have coined a term that from Leviticus 18

which explicitly states that all forms of homosexuality are unacceptable to God?

We can be confident when it says bedders of men will not inherit the kingdom of God

that it means everyone that is a practicing unrepentant homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God.

It doesn’t matter if they are committed or uncommitted.

It doesn’t matter if they are married or unmarried.

All forms of homosexuality are against God’s creation order and are serious sins in God’s eyes.

There is no escape from this conclusion.

Now we turn toward

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality [oute malakoi oute arsenokoitai], nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Malakoi — This word literally means soft or effeminate.

It means men who take the role of a woman in a homosexual relationship or the receiving end of the same sex relationship.

It also means men who conduct themselves in an effeminate way or with effeminate appearance.

Paul uses both terms here to imply the culpability of both partners in same sex unions.

Paul was specifying that those who unrepentantly take either role in a homosexual relationship will not inherit the kingdom of God.

For many people this is hard to hear.

Homosexuality is not a blessing to be celebrated or a union to be solemnized.

It is a sin to be repented of, forsaken and forgiven. The Bible is abundantly clear.

In short, the New Testament explicitly treats homosexual practice as a violation of the seventh commandment.

Our Response

Speak the truth and the Gospel in love

Understand we all are fallen people with fallen desires.

This shouldn’t surprise us.

Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” “

Desiring sin is “natural” for sinners.

Though creation is good, and sex is good, our desires are distorted.

We must not (and cannot!) redefine sex according to our desires,

but instead those who are saved must depend on God to transform our desires (Rom 12:1) in accord with his will.

So, we must clearly state that sexual desires are wrong that outside of God’s design.

But remember that the gospel call isn’t primarily about gender and sexuality.

It’s primarily a call to die to self, submit to Christ and experience the joy of walking in the light.

What’s most offensive about Christianity isn’t the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.

It’s the fact that we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath and can be saved only by trusting a Messiah who was executed on a cross.

Rosaria Butterfield, a formerly practicing lesbian who converted to Christ, says something very profound, “I wasn’t saved out of homosexuality. I was saved out of unbelief.”

All of us are born sinners and therefore all of us need a new birth.

“We don’t say… ‘Get yourself fixed and then come to Jesus.’ …

We say … ‘Come to Jesus and he will start to put you together again.’”[9]

Identify with Christ

Romans 6:6 “6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

This is the miracle of Christianity, isn’t it?

Those ruined and wracked and destroyed by sin may shed their sinful identity. Like a moth turning into a butterfly, they may become new in and through Christ.

Their past does not define them.

We can put it more strongly: our past cannot define us.

The blood of Christ has washed us. The grace of God has saved us. The verdict of ‘justified’ has been given to us.

We have a past, but the past is not where we stay. The past is not what defines us. Christ is. We cannot stress this strongly enough.

Do old temptations still pull at us? .

But those temptations—though real—do not and cannot shape our identity.

Through our faith in Christ,

God has given us a new name,

a new identity,

a new present,

and a new future.

We are not who we were.

We are not who Satan wants us to believe we are.

So, we say with love and compassion: reject your past identity.

Preach this truth to yourself:

I am a new creation in Christ.

I am born again.

I am a Christian.

I am washed,

waiting, and justified.

Sin does not define me.

Whatever your struggle relative to your identity, whether it is clean or combative over the long haul, do not forget that Christ is not only a part of our life; He is our life (Col. 3:4).

Forsake and fight sinful thoughts, desires and actions

The call of Christ is a call to forsake sin.

There is no true conversion in the name of Jesus that is not accompanied by a whole-soul turning from sin.

When we turn to Christ, we turn from sin.

This is not only true for one kind of sinner who has one particular battle with the flesh.

This is true of us all.

Everyone who loves Jesus hates their depravity.

Everyone who hates their depravity fights it tooth and nail.

1 Cor. 9:26-27 “26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” .

We are called to forsake and fight sinful thoughts, desires, and actions.

In practical terms,

when we think wrong thoughts,

we should confess them to God,

repent of them, and ask Him for power over the flesh.

This in turn helps us fight the battle for our desires,

for what the mind is fixed upon,

the heart will want.

If the mind is fixed upon Christ, in general the heart will want Christ.

If the mind is fixed upon sin, the heart will want sin.

a thought or desire is not wrong because you feel it especially strongly or for a long time.

A thought or desire is wrong when it is focused on something ungodly.

To think untrue things about homosexuality for even an instant calls for repentance.

To have even a quick flash of same-sex attraction toward someone calls for repentance.

Our thinking and desiring is not wrong only when we entertain sin in some form for ten seconds, for example.

There is no ‘ten second rule’ to be found in the Bible.

Thinking and desiring is wrong when it is focused on sinful ends and sinful things.

No Christian gets this just right, alas; we all must repent regularly of allowing our mind, and thus our heart, to be drawn away by our own wrong thoughts and lustful passions (see James 1:13-15).

We must keep fighting for holiness in mind, body, and spirit.

We areas God to refocus our mind on Christ, and we ask God to give us a fresh desire to obey Him.

God will help us grow, progressively and over the long haul of our lives, in conformity to His holiness.

This mental transformation prompts a bodily transformation.

We cease to present our bodies as servants of sin.

Instead, we present our bodies as ‘living sacrifices’ to God.

As our mind is cleansed, so our body is cleansed.

This mental transformation prompts a bodily transformation.

When w are saved we do not just sit round thinking about good but it is also active.

God’s grace gives us a hammer to smash our idols

You go to war on the flesh. You do violence to your sin

John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

We must war against our sin or it will destroy us and those around us.

Identify your self by your savior not by your sin.

We are not an angry sin

We are not an adulterous Christian

We are not an alcoholic Christian

We are not a lustful Christian

We are not a Homosexual Christin.

We are a Christian period

We have been saved by grace through faith and because of Christ we we are not defined by our sin, but defined by relationship with Christ.

We can have victory over Christ because His garce and mercy is greater than our sin.