These Things We Confess: On Gender and Sexuality

Genesis 1:26–31 ESV

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, 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.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Introduction:

Good morning again. Over the past few weeks we have been walking through the biblical grounding for our statement of faith as Hope Bible Fellowship and being part of the Free Church. Our statement of faith can be found on our website, along with our by laws.

Due to the current winds in the culture it was necessary for us to also include a statement on gender and sexuality. My attempt is to have our church and statement reflect a biblical understanding of gender and sexuality in the way God created those things to work.

Let me begin by saying, I know that this topic hits many of you close to home. You have someone in your family or your life who is living a life against God’s plan for human sexuality and gender. Do not hear anyone condemn you or your loved one today. But understand that it would be incredibly unloving and frankly poor leadership on my part to not address this important issue. I have great compassion for those who find themselves in this tender position. Hear me, there is HOPE. Jesus is powerful. He CAN. I don’t know if He will change it, but He CAN. We must never give up HOPE that our loved ones will repent and be forgiven. I also want to address anyone in the audience who may be living out one of these lifestyles that I am going to address or is approving of them. We do not hate you. You are welcome to be here because we want you to hear the good news that Jesus has a better way. He created you for something better. So with that, let’s get into our statement:

Hope Bible Fellowship Additional Statement on Marriage and Sexuality

Regarding marriage and sexuality, Hope Bible Fellowship believes that the term “marriage” has only one meaning and that meaning is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one biological manand one biological woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture (Genesis 2: 18-25;Matthew 19: 4-6).

Hope Bible Fellowship believes that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other.

Hope Bible Fellowship believes that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one's sex, or disagreement with one's biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God (Romans 1: 24 – 2:2).

Hope Bible Fellowship believes that in order to preserve the function and integrity of the church as the local Body of Christ, and toprovide a biblical role model to the church members and the community, it is imperative that all persons employed by the church in any capacity, or who serve as volunteers, should abide by and agree to this doctrinal statement on marriage and sexuality and conduct themselves accordingly. Furthermore, in compliance with these doctrinal beliefs, the property and facilities of Hope Bible Fellowship shall only be utilized by all such peoples who hold to and practice these doctrinal beliefs.

Therefore, if any one person(s) desires to use the property and facilities of Hope Bible Fellowship and yet be in direct violation of upholding the doctrinal beliefs of marriage and sexuality contained herein, he or she will not be permitted to use the property and facilities, which includes but is not limited to marriage ceremonies, marriage retreats, and / or marriage counseling. This is not to discriminate against an individual based upon his or her sexual orientation or marital status, but rather this is a statute of Hope Bible Fellowship to obey God in religious freedom so as to abide by such doctrinal beliefs.

Although opposition to comply with the practice of these doctrinal beliefs of marriage and sexuality is to sin against God, Hope Bible believes that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

If you had told me thirty years ago that the issue of our day, as a forty seven year old man, would be that our culture collectively can not or rather will not define what a woman is, I would not have believed you. If you had told me that we would have major medical groups advocating for the mutilation of children and letting them choose to believe a lie about what gender they are, inflicting permanent and irreversibility damage to their bodies, I would have thought you were describing a science fiction book of a dystopian future, but here we are, allowing people to create and live in a false reality. We live in wild and unpredictable times when reality is denied and people's delusions are celebrated. What a time to be alive.

Gender and sexuality is in-fact, the issue of our times. Not only are we confused about gender but also about what kind of sexual behavior is acceptable. It is all over the news and many are using it as a call to arms for their specific political or social agenda. Unfortunately, we sometimes even find confusion on these issues in the chairs of our churches.

My goal today is to give you an apologetic for gender and sexuality developed from a biblical theology of gender and sexuality. This is a sermon and not a classroom so I want to proclaim the truth and then show how this may be applied in your interactions with others. This is directly connected to our understanding of the gospel and who and how God created people to live.

We are going to begin in the book of Genesis in the creation account. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1.Genesis 1:26-31Genesis 2:15-25

I. What does the Bible say about the gender?

A. There are only two genders: Male and Female

Genesis 1:27 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

We have to start at the beginning. Our statement of faith begins where the Bible begins: with God. In the beginning God. God created them male and female. If you’re paying attention our first observation is that there are only two genders. There is male and female, man and woman. This was virtually unquestioned for most of history because in many ways it is obvious.

When I say gender, I am referring to biological differences in male and female embodiment and also the different cultural ways in which the distinctions between the two genders are played out in life.

We are created with equal worth before God and yet with different traits and roles within the family, the church, and the world. Because we are created biologically and distinctly sexed, there are cultural realities that come out on the other side.

Even in today’s liberal culture who try and force feed unbiblical ideas of gender and sex to us in television and streaming shows, you then have a commercial or an ad pop up advertising products that reinforce traditional gender roles. For example, you’ll mostly see delivery trucks driven by men and Febreeze sprayed by women in the home. These things are hard wired in us and even when the culture tries to tell us lies about them, the truth peeks through.

A. Men and woman have equal worth before God but different roles according to creation order.

If you look back at verse 27 in Genesis 1, you’ll see an important point. Not only was man created male and female, but God created man in His image. This sets people apart from every other creature in all of God’s creation. We, humanity, are God’s crowning glory of creation.

We are unlike anything else God created because we have inherent worth and value. Men and women with equal worth and value because we are created in God’s image.

Colossians 1:15–16 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Check that out! The He in this section is Jesus. God created everything by means of or in Christ. At the end there it says “all things were created through him and for him.”

So you were created by Christ and for Christ and your sin separated you from Christ and so Christ Jesus came and lived a perfect life without sin and gave His life as a sacrifice for your sin, in your place, on the cross, and died. Three days later He arose to prove that He conquered sin and redeemed His creation. He ascended into heaven where He sits at the mighty right hand of God the Father and someday will return bodily and gloriously to this creation and make all things new, restoring that which is His, created by Him and for Him and paid for by His own blood. Being made in the image of God is mind blowing!

From the very beginning God has created the two different genders to live in complement to one another within the marriage covenant. That marriage itself is a picture of the mystery of Christ and the church.

God has created humans as male and female and within those genders, has also given us roles and interactions with one another that create a beautiful picture when working in complement of one another. To further use an artistic illustration, if the way that God has created men and women, male and female and ordered sexuality is a beautiful and elaborate sculpture, then the world is like a child with a crayon who comes along and tries to flatten us out so that everything looks the same and no differences are apparent. They strive to take away the distinctions that give beauty and grace to God’s creation order.

B. No amount of confusion or gender dysphoria can change the truth that there are only two genders.

Nothing about you is a mistake. Your feelings are not facts. You may feel one way or another but it does not change what is true. The worst thing you can do is believe that the way you feel even deeply in your being is totally true without measuring it by the Word of God and the way that God has created humanity. So many Christians have fallen into false beliefs about gender and sexuality out of a desire to “feel good” about it or out of a positive motivation to want people to “feel loved.” There is a false notion that it is unloving to tell someone that they are wrong. However, as we learned last week as we walked through article ten, there is an eternal destination for those who follow their feelings instead building their lives on the truth about Jesus.

A. Men and woman have equal worth before God but different roles according to creation order.

This point has been sprinkled throughout this morning. God created men and women with inclinations, dispositions, and distinct traits that are complementary to one another. We should embrace these and not war against them as our culture does. How you see these traits will betray what your worldview is. Your worldview is like the goggles that you look at he world through. Everything you look at will be tinted like the worldview you look at it through. We want to be people of a Biblical worldview. So everything we look at goes through the filter of scripture. We can of course be sensitive to our cultural context as we seek to wisely apply these. However, men and women both have distinct and vitally important roles to play both in family and church life. For example: Men are to lead in the home. Women are more oriented toward nurturing and caring for the house and family needs. That’s natural. That doesn’t mean a woman can not work. We aren’t and wouldn’t make that blanket statement. But there are God given roles that when rightly ordered and operated from a place of faith in Christ will most fulfill each person.

II. What does the Bible say about sex and sexuality?

A. Sex was created by God for one woman and one man to enjoy within the covenant of marriage for life. Anything outside of this is sin and against God’s will and plan for humanity.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

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. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

B. A Christian understanding is that sex is:

Super-consensual

Gender Diverse

Capable of life‌ (Though not always for this outcome.)

To live out a biblical sexual ethic, the context for sexual activity of ANY KIND is one man and one woman together for a lifetime. Therefore, if you are having sex with someone of the same gender, it’s sinful. If you are having sex with someone you are not married to, it is sin. If you are living with someone who you are not married to and having sex, even though the state may say you are common law married, you are in sin. If you are looking at pornography you are sinning. If you are staring at the half naked ladies jogging outside your house, you are in sin. If you are lusting after the men lifting weights at the gym you’re in sin. If you’re wanting to show off parts of your body that you know will sexually arouse someone you are not married to on purpose, you are in sin. Why say all of this so expressly? Because, many of us need to repent of using sex in a way that is against God’s created order. It’s very easy for us to sit in our worship service and look out there and point at the gay folks or the promiscuous people at there, all the while carrying sin around in our hearts. Repent of your own sin. And then let’s take the hope of the gospel to those who are hurting and destroying their lives following the false wisdom of our age.

1 Corinthians 6:12–20 ESV

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 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.

What is the way to glorify God with your body? Flee sexual immorality. The Bible is VERY clear about what God says is immoral sexually. Flee.

As Christians today, we face challenges:

Here are some questions that have been offered by others:

How do we address the modern identity crisis with it’s deeply held background beliefs about identity and freedom?

How do we address the historical narrative and the culture’s ignorance of what researchers call the first Christian sexual revolution?

How do we root our teaching as a church about sexuality in full theology and not simply declare the ethic of it or what’s allowable?

Not simply do or don’t do but the why and the deeper theological connection behind why this is the case.‌

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

God’s Word is always relevant and profitable for declaring our response to any issues we are faced with today.The Bible instructs us both in how to think about the issue of homosexuality and gender but also teaches us how to respond to those who are active in their pursuit of a lifestyle that God has forbidden.

So that begs the question:

III. How should we interact with a world that is confused on gender and sexuality?‌

A. Our lives should reflect a Biblical understanding of gender and sexuality.

Are you going to be a Christian? You don’t get to decide which parts of Christianity you believe. You take it all or leave it. That sound very extreme. It is. You either go with God or you go with the world. You can’t have it both ways. ‌There is a great confusion about identity in our culture today. You can’t identify as something that is anti-Christian and still say you’re a Christian. It doesn’t work that way.

B. With love and the gospel

The world has bought a big lie. It says that to love you I have to accept everything about you, even the things you do that I know are harmful to you and endangering your very soul. This is hogwash. Would it be loving for me to watch you get hit by a train? NO. The loving thing would be for me to get your attention and point out that there is a train coming and if you don’t listen to as best I can, move you from in front of the tracks. I might get a little dinged up in the process. Now, I’m not advocating that you tackle people. What I am saying is that you can tell the truth and still be loving. If people are offended by the truth that’s okay. That’s actually normal. If they are offended because you are a jerk, that’s not okay. Are you prepared to walk something through the gospel? Can you explain how they were created in the image of God with inherent value, worth, and dignity? Can you walk through Creation, the fall, redemption in Jesus Christ, and restoration?

The local church is the plan to spread the gospel. There is no plan B.

A Challenge to You:

4 Points in your life to represent a Christian view of sexuality and gender to a confused world:

a. With what we do.

Standing against wicked behavior in your workplace with your eyes on people coming to know Jesus and turning from their sin.‌

b. With what we say.

We must not approve of what the Bible calls sin.‌

A Christian should not attend a gay wedding because it gives the appearance of approval and celebration. Walk people through the biblical teaching rather than just saying the ethic of it. Be prepared to give a reason. I would not attend a child sacrifice or an armed robbery either. Culturally those are not approved… well, child sacrifice is approved of in our culture.

c. With our marriages.

- Are we trusting Christ with our marriages and living out His model for our relationships? Are you enjoying the gift of sexuality within the context that God designed it for? Do that and thank God for His good gifts. Find other couples that you can help understand gender roles in marriage and what God’s design for marriage is. Mentoring. Be an example worth following.

d. With our parenting.

Walk your kids at each life stage and age level through the biblical understanding of gender and sexuality. If you don’ disciple your kids, their friends or school will and you may not like how that turns out.‌

It’s not always advantageous to open your mouth. However, staying silent in midst of great evil being perpetrated around us is not helpful. I want to close by reading a quote from an article by Rachel Gilson on talking to your kids about the LGBT+ issue. She writes,

“Rather than opting for us/them language, some of us may struggle to know what to say at all, so we end up saying nothing to our kids. This can be motivated by good: we don’t want to misrepresent God like those who hold up signs saying “God hates gays.” But if we say nothing, we can also undermine how our children understand the gospel.

On the one hand, we could unintentionally communicate that God doesn’t care about our sexuality. If we never tell our children that God says a clear “no” to same-sex sexual relationships, we could leave them to conclude that Christians can just follow their hearts. We may unintentionally signal that the gospel is a ticket to heaven that has no relevance to our holiness here. If they’ve heard at school or in the neighborhood that same-sex relationships are good, and they’ve heard nothing from us, they may assume we agree.

On the other hand, our silence could accidentally communicate that sexuality is too shameful to discuss. They might conclude that God wants nothing to do with it because it’s dirty, or that God isn’t interested in saving their friends who identify as LGBT+. Maybe Jesus’s work isn’t for everyone. Again, we’d never teach this. But in the silence, our kids can be left to wonder and reach terrible conclusions that don’t reflect the gospel.”

Repent where we have sinned. Show the fruit of repentance - change your way of living toward these things.‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌

And don’t ever forget that there is hope for the worst sinner. I’m so thankful for that. Because I am the worst sinner I know. There are so many out there who are confused and we should pray fervently that the Lord would reveal Jesus to them and that we would be willing to be the conduit of that message.

Let me read the final part of our statement:

Although opposition to comply with the practice of these doctrinal beliefs of marriage and sexuality is to sin against God, Hope Bible believes that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

We refuse to believe anyone is without hope until they are in eternity.

Let’s pray.