Biblical Sexuality

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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.

This week we’re going to take a brief pause in our study through the book of Matthew to address another biblical matter that’s particularly urgent in our day, the issue of human sexuality. And I can’t imagine any of us are unfamiliar with the issues that are pressing in our day, given that nearly every form of media and entertainment intends to persuade and indoctrinate you and I in matters of sexual ethics, particularly here in the West where sexual promiscuity is common place, marriage has been is cheapened, pornography is encouraged, homosexuality is championed and transgenderism is celebrated. The unbelieving world intends to teach you and I the ethics of human sexuality, and unfortunately the only ethic that seems to remain (likely only by a thread) is the doctrine of consent. That anything goes as long as consenting people are involved. And it’s hard to imagine that even the ailing ethic of consent will last much longer.

Bill C-4

Now, just over a month ago, on December 7th, 2021, without a single dissenting vote, the Canadian parliamentary passed a bill known as C-4 banning what’s called conversion therapy. A practice, that for many, elicits the idea of engaging in coercive or abusive practices to forcibly change a person’s sexual desires. Therefore, on the face of it, for many, the bill seemed harmless, and even in the interest of the public good, of protecting the vulnerable from potentially “coercive and unscientific therapeutic practices.” (The Canadian Religious Freedom Summit, http://statement.freedomsummit.ca)

However, many citizens, and particularly Christians, became immediately concerned with the bill, due to the broad and highly ambiguous language used within the bill to define conversion therapy. The bill defines conversion therapy like this,

“… conversion therapy means a practice, treatment or service designed to (a) change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; (b) change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; (c) change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; (d) repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior; (e) repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or (f) repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.”

The immediate concern here, as one Christian writer put it, is that “it remains unclear to parents, pastors, counsellors and mentors how these terms ought to be understood. Assurances by lawmakers have been provided to constituents that the bill only seeks to criminalize coercive efforts and coercive practices, treatments and services and that it would not apply to a person who sought out a pastor or mentor for help to live a chaste sexual lifestyle or to live in alignment with their biological sex. However, no such assurances appear in the language of the actual bill.”

The author goes on, “the language of Bill C-4 as passed is exceedingly broad and may have the effect of criminalizing religious conversation and teaching with respect to the Biblical perspective on human sexuality and gender.” And “the net result will be legal exposure and authorized harassment of pastors and churches.”

And it’s hard not to understand their concerns when you realize the inherent bias and intent of this bill as it is described in its own preamble. One paragraph reads as follows,

“… conversion therapy causes harm to society because, among other things, it is based on and propagates myths and stereotypes about sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, including the myth that heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity, and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions;”

Notice how the writers of the bill, at the outset, claim that heterosexuality and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are a myth, that they’re stereotypes. It’s hard not to see the underhanded intentions of this bill and why Christians would be deeply concerned that this bill could be used to silence the biblical teaching on human sexuality.

Standing united

Therefore, in response to this bill, many Christians within Canada have asked others around their nation and around the world to take a stand on biblical sexuality together with them. Some of the pastors specifically reached out to John MacArthur, a pastor and teacher at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, and at the end of December he invited other churches within earshot to join him in standing united on biblical sexual morality this January 16th, 2022. So, I wanted to take the opportunity, not only to stand united with our brothers in Canada, but to teach on this pressing subject that has marked much of the last 50-60 years, from the sexual revolution to the onset of transgenderism.

Do not be tossed to and fro

One of the challenges that every generation faces is seeing through the unbiblical teachings of their own day, to remain discerning despite the unique trappings of their day. While the chief problem behind believing lies is the propensity of our own sinful hearts to believe them, lies are almost always cloaked in righteousness and usually seem good to us at first, or at the very least pleasing to the flesh. And the only infallible source that we have for identifying such lies is God’s written revelation, the Scriptures. I say it often, that one of the biggest problems that ails the church today is our lack of knowledge of the Word of God, that we don’t know it, and that we don’t understand it, that we aren’t intimately familiar with it, and therefore woefully undiscerning. The prophet Hosea, while rebuking Israel’s priests, said,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;

because you have rejected knowledge,

In other words, it’s vital that we know and understand the law of God, to know and understand the written revelation that he’s given us, because if we don’t we’re going to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. The Apostle Paul pointed this out in Ephesians 4:11-14,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

And remember if we’re not being shaped by the Scriptures we’ll be shaped by the world. This is why we must be incredibly careful with the kinds, and the amounts of entertainment that we consume, because entertainment is the primary medium by which the world promulgates its worldview. And as Christians we have to be aware of that, teach our children that, and be always be on guard of that. And I’m not saying you ought to take a monastic approach to the world, but that you should be discerning and to teach your children to be discerning, to shepherd them in the midst of these things.

And while it’s the responsibility of the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints and preach sound doctrine, whether you avail yourself of such teaching both privately and corporately is your responsibility, and we must take that responsibility seriously. It’s why we promote daily bible reading plans, good commentaries and sound biblical teaching by other Christians. The aim is that we would grow in our knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, that we might mature, so that we would no longer be like children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

And I say all of this, because this is precisely what we must realize concerning the subject of human sexuality, that the world will gladly dictate to you it’s own take on sexual morality. They’ll gladly tell you that sex is meaningless and is therefore permissible at at any time with anyone. They’ll gladly teach you that the greatest moral good is to pursue the desires of your heart, whether to forsake your spouse for another, or to call yourself a man when you’re not because it feels right, and they’ll call all of these things love, and they’ll label anyone who disagrees as unloving and bigoted. And if you’re not regularly immersed in the Word of God you’ll feel the hooks of these worldly doctrines, you’ll grow increasingly sympathetic to them, and they’ll ultimately lead you away from Christ. And it’s for this reason that it’s important we take time to regularly articulate and remind ourselves of what is true, that we might stand fast amidst the onslaught of worldly doctrines. Sometimes, I think we forget that we’re in a battle, that “though we walk in the flesh, [that] we’re not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5)

Often times texts like that are used to say that we should battle demonic powers in our prayer closets, but that’s not what that text says. The Apostle Paul tells us that we destroy strongholds, and that we do that by destroying arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Our job is to kick the legs out from underneath the wisdom of this world. And we do that with the Word of God.

Autonomy & Rebellion

Now, at first, we must realize that at the heart of the world’s teaching on human sexuality is rebellion, and the desire for human autonomy. All of its teachings on sexuality stem from a desire to pursue the lusts of the flesh and a desire to be a law unto themselves. To the world the desires of our hearts are inherently good and are the objective standard by which sexual morality is determined. Ever since the Garden of Eden and the Fall man has desired to be like God, to be the master of his own domain, the captain of his own soul, and the maker of his own destiny. That man decides what is right and what is wrong, that man decides what is good and what is evil.

In Genesis 2:9 we read,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

then in verse 15,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

then in Genesis 3, starting in verse 1, we read,

English Standard Version Chapter 3

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now, it’s important to realize that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil wasn’t a bad tree, it wasn’t an evil tree, first because we know that everything that God created was declared very good, and second, because the tree didn’t represent evil but rather it was simply a tree that man was not permitted to eat from, and if he did he would be cursed. It was a test as to whether or not man would submit to God’s authority or if he would he seek his own? Would mankind chose to be governed by God’s authority or to seek to be governed by his own authority. You see, for man to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil would be for man to reject God’s authority, trusting not in his Creator but rather himself. The eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil was an act of cosmic treason. And it’s this kind of rebellion that sits at the heart of every sin.

Kicking against God’s created order

And ever since then we’ve been slaves to that sin. We grasp to define our own reality despite the insanity of kicking against the goads of God’s created order. We read in Genesis 1:27 that,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

yet men and women mutilate the genitalia of their bodies in defiance to God’s ordering. In Genesis 1:28, we read that God commanded Adam and Eve to go, and,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

yet the Apostle Paul tells us that there are women who have,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

In Mark 10:6, Jesus reminds us that,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

yet our culture teaches us that marriage is cheap and meaningless, and that no one is truly bound to another person, that God would never want me in a bad marriage, that sometimes people just fall out of love with one another, but the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 13, verse 4 to,

English Standard Version Chapter 13

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

My point here is that sex is not meaningless and marriage is not cheap, which why the Scriptures also forbid all kinds of sexual immorality including pornography and fornication, again, because sex is not meaningless and marriage is not cheap.

You see, to justify rejecting biblical sexually, whether by engaging in fornication, celebrating homosexuality, or championing transgenderism one has to argue that gender and sexuality are fundamentally meaningless. That there’s no good reason I can’t be a different gender (even one of my own making), that there’s no good reason I can’t have sex with anyone at anytime, that there’s no good reason I can’t dissolve my marriage, that there’s no good reason I can’t engage in homosexual behavior. In order to justify such behaviors and actions one has to reject that God has created them, and their sexuality, for a purpose. You have to kick against those purposes, you have to go so far as to defy even the created order.

Example of homosexuality

And this is why the Apostle Paul, in Romans chapter 1, uses homosexuality as his principle example of how mankind exchanges the truth about God for a lie and worships the creature rather than the Creator. You see, 1) homosexuality is one of the clearest portrayals of mankind’s rebellion against God’s created order, because it’s manifestly obvious that men are not anatomically designed to have sexual relations or to procreate, and 2) homosexuality, in the clearest sense, illustrates man’s worship of himself, of his worship of the creation rather than the Creator. Yet the culture claims that such behaviors are a portrayal of what defines love. However, the Scriptures teach us that such behaviors are some of the clearest portrayals of our own rebellion and hard heartedness toward God. That these behaviors are so manifestly opposed to the purposes of God that they defy the created order in the plainest of ways.

Consequences of sin

And we must realize that our rebellion has ramifications. It has tremendous consequences in this life, it destroys families, it destroys marriages, it destroys children, the mutilation of a person’s body, it leads to emotional trauma, and the list goes on. These are just some of the temporal effects of our sin, just some of the effects of our sexual sin. Whereas, our culture portrays such sexual sin as without consequence, it normalizes sexual perversion, glamorizes it, makes it seem vogue and in style. Beloved, let me be clear, these things are demonic and they are not loving or glamorous, they lead to death.

The Gospel is essential

And this is why the Gospel is so essential, because it’s the only message that can save, and it does so by calling men and women to faith and repentance, to repent of their sin and rebellion against God, to see and trust in God’s beloved Son, the one who bore the just wrath of God that we deserve, the penalty that we were due. It beckons sinners, it beckons us, to trust in the good purposes of our heavenly Father. To see that God has made us male and female for good reasons, that he has made you either male or female in his own image, that you are intended to bring him glory, that he has made marriage for our good, that marriage is intended to reflect his covenant with us as believers, that sex is not meaningless, but that it’s intended that we might have the blessing of children, and that it would signify the one flesh union between a man and a woman, an expression of the deepest intimacy between two people that’s protected by the bounds of marriage. You see, we find freedom within the bounds of God’s created order, not outside of it.

Conclusion

As Christians we must realize that in this life we will be plagued by sin and temptation, that we will have disordered, sinful desires. We’re going to desire things and experience passions that we ought not to, and we’re going to be tempted act upon them, that if we just give in that it’ll be better, that it’ll be worth it, but do not be fooled, sin only ever leads to death. Instead, look to Christ, resolved to follow his word no matter where it leads, trust him.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Ask the Spirit that he would help you to put to death the deeds of the body, trust in the promises that He will keep you. Lean on Christians who care deeply for your soul, and look ahead to day of your redemption.

Prayer