Chaotic Culture: Homosexuality
Notes
Transcript
Pre-Sermon:
Pre-Sermon:
Announcements:
Easter Choir
Spring party: Vikings theme - pick tribe tonight
April 17 - bowling party at P-dubs (see back table)
2nd Hume Payment is due next Tuesday (April 1)
Introduction:
Introduction:
Something to do with nature
1. What is homosexuality?
1. What is homosexuality?
Acting on attraction to people who are the same gender as you
Men being attracted to men, women being attracted to women
Acting on it, physically and even relationally
Has become so common in our culture that it is:
Accepted, pushed, and celebrated
It’s honestly shocking to hear public figures speak out against it
That’s how accepted it is within the Western world
It has even gotten to the point (and maybe it’s not shocking to you) that there are many church denominations that claim LGBTQ is a part of God’s design for mankind
They make claims that the Biblical authors had no conception of modern homosexuality so that wasn’t in the view in the verses that say it’s sin
Or that modern homosexuality isn’t in view in passages found in Leviticus or the Pauline epistles
Not going to get into these kinds of arguments or even address them
Those are questions that are ultimately questions of the authority and inerrancy of Scripture rather than specifically relating to homosexuality
If you don’t believe Scripture to be inerrant (without error) or complete, then you’re going to poke holes in the argument based on that
Just watched a debate between a Catholic, a Christian Pastor, and two LGBTQ clergy
That’s basically what it came down to - do you believe the Bible to be inerrant (again, without error)?
If not, then you open the doors to all kinds of wrong interpretations
tonight we are instead going to look at what the Bible says about homosexuality and then how marriage is integral to God’s creation of mankind
2. What Does the Bible Say?
2. What Does the Bible Say?
Admittedly, the Bible does not say much about homosexuality
Everything it does say about it is critical or a condemnation of homosexuality
The Bible also condemns all forms of homosexuality
Shouldn’t cause us to question the validity of the argument
Should really solidify our position because it is so clear
Doesn’t say much, but what it does say is so utterly clear
So we’ll start from the clearest verses and end with verses that indirectly address homosexuality
The Law
The Law
22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
These are both direct commands from the Law against homosexuality and homosexual acts
The Epistles
The Epistles
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
God has revealed himself and his standards (generally) through nature
Again, Natural Revelation
Dishonoring of the body includes things that are contrary to nature - natural relations/sexuality
Shameless acts with men
Due penalty
If you claim an LGBTQ identity, this is what you’re setting yourself up for
Claiming an identity that goes against Scripture leads only to death
Not only are you sinning, you’re making that sin a part of your identity
“These sinful, same-sex relationships, however, are merely symptoms of humanity’s underlying rebellion against the Creator and his design for man and woman.”
9 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, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Grouped in with other sins
Jesus’s Teachings
Jesus’s Teachings
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
“sexual immorality” - Gk word porneia would include all forms of non-marital intercourse, which would necessarily include homosexuality
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 is clear that marriage is between man and woman, there is no room for any other option
Creation Narrative
Creation Narrative
This one is my personal favorite - going back to the beginning
Gives us God’s clear intentions for man and woman and how we ought to live together
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 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. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 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.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
This is the 7th time that we have used/referenced these verses in this study
Why? Because our creation is foundational to God’s blueprint for humanity
What do we walk away with?
Just because something is controversial doesn’t mean it’s complicated
The Bible could not be more clear on God’s design for human sexual relationships
Only within the bond of marriage between a man and a woman
More importantly, God through His Word is clear on homosexuality
It is a sin
The only way around it is to discount the authority and inerrancy of Scripture
3. Redemption by God’s Design
3. Redemption by God’s Design
Not a sin that cannot be redeemed
Same consequence as other sexual sin - pornography, adultery, homosexuality - all fall under the same umbrella
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Those of us who commit sexual immorality also face the same death
Means they need the same redemption
Starts with the heart, not with behavior:
If you struggle with same sex attraction, with homosexuality, God can redeem it
He has done it before and he can do it again
Testimony of Sean Doherty from Nancy Pearcy’s book Love Thy Body:
Sean Doherty is sexually attracted to other men. He is also a Christian ethics teacher, is happily married to a woman, and has three children.
How do these things fit together?
“I became a Christian in my late teens,” Doherty says. “I was also exclusively attracted to men. I determined that the only course open to me was to remain celibate. I accepted the biblical teaching that God had created marriage for a man and a woman, and because I was gay, my only ethical option was to embrace a life of being single.”
How did Doherty’s perspective change? He explains that he began to reflect on “the sexual identity which God has given me”—namely, the “tangible fact that I am a man. . . . Thus, as a man, God’s original intention for me in creation was to be able to relate sexually to a woman.” In the garden of Eden, male and female were created to be one another’s counterpart or complement. In the language of the King James Version, the woman is “meet” for the man—an older term meaning suitable or corresponding to him (Gen. 2:18, 20).
In short, Doherty focused on the fact that biologically, genetically, physiologically, and chromosomally he is male, oriented toward a female, no matter what his feelings and desires were. “Indeed, I came to think that in fact my feelings were what were relatively superficial, in comparison to my physical identity.” He began to base his identity on his body. Over time, Doherty began to notice a subtle shift. “Without denying or ignoring my sexual feelings, I stopped regarding them as being who I was, sexually, and started regarding my physical body as who I was.” To his surprise, he found that his sexual desires began to change. “Rather than trying to change my feelings so that I could change my label, I changed my label and my feelings started to follow suit.” His feelings changed enough that eventually he fell in love with a woman and got married.
Though our feelings are important, Doherty concluded, they are not what define our identity. Nor are they a reliable guide to God’s purposes. Because we are fallen and sinful, our feelings fluctuate over time. The most reliable marker of who we are is our physically embodied, God-given identity as male and female.
Pearcey, Nancy. Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (pp. 155-156.)
God not only saved Sean, but he was also redeemed and sanctified as he renewed his mind with God’s Word.
Redemption doesn’t necessarily mean marriage, but it does mean righteousness
Conclusion
Conclusion
Nowhere in Scripture is homosexuality spoken of in a positive way
It is always condemned, always criticized, always presented as going against God’s design for mankind
That is made clear from the opening chapters of Scripture
Even though Scripture is clear, we can fully expect disagreement with the biblical position
But that doesn’t change our obedience and stance for truth
Going to beat the same drum here - we stand for truth, but we do it with love
Those who struggle with homosexuality still need the same gospel and same savior that we have
