The Marriage Debate from God’s Perspective [B]

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Transcript:

Well, this evening, if you’ll turn with me back to Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 1, we’re going to pick up where we left off this morning, because after 30 or 40 minutes, I only got through the first point of the message this morning. And if you’ve got a copy of the bulletin from this morning, we’ll be using the same notes if you keep notes that way. But we begin talking this morning about marriage and what it is and what it is not and God’s perspective on it, because with all matters for the believer, we need to adhere to and practice God’s perspective on the world around us.

And that’s even true of something like marriage, where the world looks at it and says, well, God’s definition is outdated. God’s definition is no longer relevant. God’s definition doesn’t matter.

And this morning, we talked about what God’s perspective on marriage is, and how Christians need to adhere to God’s perspective on marriage. just to recap for you. I know a few of you were not here this morning.

What God’s perspective on marriage is, is that first of all, it was instituted by God. It belongs to God. It’s not man’s to fool around with because we didn’t invent it.

We didn’t come up with it. But it’s God’s institution and God has a specific design for what it’s supposed to look like and what it’s supposed to do. It’s instituted by God.

Second of all, it’s between one man and one woman. God never intended for a man and a man to marry. God never intended for a woman and a woman to marry.

God never intended for two men and a woman to marry, or one man and 800 women to marry. And I mentioned to you this morning the difficult case of polygamy in the Old Testament. It seems to be something that was allowed, but it never was God’s ideal for us.

God’s ideal for mankind has always been one man and one woman. And just like polygamy, God has at times allowed divorce, but that doesn’t mean it’s God’s best for us or that it’s God’s plan A for us. So third of all, marriage is a lifelong covenant.

It’s intended for the husband and wife, as bad as this sounds, to be stuck together. You’re stuck with each other. That’s God’s best for us.

Now, that doesn’t say there’s not forgiveness if there’s divorce. That doesn’t mean that God can’t work something through a bad situation, but God’s design, God’s plan A for his glory and for our happiness is for marriage to be a lifelong covenant. And fourth of all, that it’s honorable.

It’s an honorable institution. It’s not something to be treated lightly. It’s not something to be dragged through the gutter the way our society does.

My wife came to me yesterday and told me, I guess she’d seen on the news about one of the Kardashians. And I realized for somebody who does not care anything about them, I sure do mention them in messages quite a bit. But came and told me about one of them, and I don’t know or care which one it was.

I don’t remember their names. But one of them was married for 72 days. you may have heard about this.

And the divorce was final, I guess, yesterday or sometime this week, but the divorce dragged on for some 500 days. They were in the process of being divorced longer than they were married. And Hollywood treats that as though it’s normal. And partially because of that influence, the rest of our country looks on that and says it’s normal. We live in a society where people and relationships are expendable, so why not marriage?

Ladies and gentlemen, God says marriage is honorable. Marriage is a precious thing. It’s not something to be, folks, it’s not something to be entered into lightly.

It’s not something to be dissolved lightly, and it’s not something we go about from day to day lightly. It’s an honorable thing, and it’s intended to bring honor to God. And when it’s done right, I submit to you that it does bring honor to God, because it’s a picture in human form of Christ and his relationship to the church.

We go back tonight to Romans chapter 1. We’ve already looked at God’s perspective on marriage and our need to get back to that. Because sometimes we as Christians can be tempted to moderate our position to make ourselves more socially acceptable or more politically acceptable.

And yet when we read through Romans chapter 1, when we read through this chapter, we find out that all this problem that began between God and man began, according to God in verse 18, verses 18 through 20, when man had knowledge of what God’s will was, when man had knowledge of what God’s ideal was, and chose to reject God’s ideal and do it his way anyway, do it our way. And so we need to start from what is God’s perspective on marriage? What is it supposed to be?

What is God’s ideal? Well, tonight, picking up where we left off, Christians also need to adhere to God’s perspective on homosexuality. Folks, we need to adhere to God’s position on homosexuality.

Our position cannot be dictated by what the television says. Our perspective cannot be dictated by what the movies say, by what the celebrities do, by what our friends and family do. It can’t even be dictated to us by what the Democratic and Republican parties say.

Our perspective on homosexuality and any sin for that matter has to be the perspective of God. And I want to just reiterate this morning the way I prefaced my message this morning. To say that if anybody, whether you’re in here or anybody outside these walls, if anybody is offended by the truth of God’s word, that’s really not my problem in any way, shape, or form.

But it’s also never my intention to intentionally or maliciously offend somebody. And as I mentioned, as I shared with you this morning, my concern about this issue is not driven by hate toward anybody, but by concern. Folks, I don’t hate them.

I want nothing more than to see repentance. And I think that’s what we should strive for more than anything. But we’ve got to begin from God’s perspective on homosexuality, because if it’s not a sin, there’s nothing to be repented of.

And the world will tell us it’s not a sin. It’s normal. They’re born that way. Folks, I don’t happen to believe that you’re born that way, but I gave up a long time ago trying to argue that because there’s so much misinformation out there.

Even if we assume somebody’s born that way, folks, we are all born with something called a sin nature. We are all born with certain tendencies toward certain sins. that doesn’t mean we get to indulge them.

I’ve also told many of you that generations of my family were essentially drunkards after they arrived in Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. And I’ve seen in my own family what drunkenness has done and that tendency, and I know full well that I probably bear that tendency within myself that doesn’t give me the right to sit around drunk. As a matter of fact, that gives me every reason not to ever taste a drop of the stuff, and I haven’t and don’t intend to.

But we all have the tendency towards sin, And God says that homosexuality is a sin. Now, as I said to you also this morning, we need to get past the idea that it’s the only sin. We talk about it as though it’s the only sin because it’s the sin that the fewest of us are involved in.

We may be involved in gluttony. We may be involved in gossip. We may be involved in pride.

We may be involved in all number of other things. So we don’t deal with those, but instead we deal with what they outside are doing. Folks, the world looks at that and sees our hypocrisy.

Verse 18 of Romans chapter 1 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Not just some of the sin, not just the socially unacceptable sins, not just the culturally liberal sins, folks, all sin, all unrighteousness. Verse 19, we’re going to read on through the passage just as we did this morning.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. And I told you this morning about the light of creation by which we can see evidence and infer that there’s a God, and the light of conscience where God’s law is written on the human heart, and from that we can realize that we’ve sinned against him, and what the Bible calls the light of Christ, whereby we know that there’s salvation for that sin.

But folks, the Bible says that what mankind knew of God, they rejected. This is nothing new that people reject God. It’s been going on since the very beginning.

But the Bible also says they’re without excuse because even those who reject Christ, even those who don’t believe in him, even those who’ve never heard of him have ample evidence that there is a God and that they’ve sinned against him. But there again, that’s why it’s so vital that we take the gospel to the ends of the earth so that everyone has the opportunity to hear of the light of Christ. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

And so man went from rejecting God to building another God in his place. Whether it was the statues that they used to worship, whether it’s the worship of self, whether it’s the worship of celebrity, the worship of wealth, whatever it is, the world likes to take these created things and created beings them in place of the creator, which leads to all sorts of problems as we’re to find out. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

One of the symptoms, one of the symptoms of man’s rejection of God and his idolatry was sexual immorality. We treat it oftentimes like that is the big problem, whether it’s homosexuality, whether it’s out of wedlock births, whether it’s any of these things, we treat them like they’re the big problem. Ladies and gentlemen, they are merely the of a deeper problem, which is a rejection of God and a putting up of idols in his place.

When you don’t believe or fear God, is it any wonder that you reject his standards? But folks, we reject his standards and we reject him to our own peril. Verse 25 says, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.

For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections. Now that’s pretty harsh language. If the apostle Paul was alive today in certain parts of the world, he’d probably be on trial for hate speech.

Vile affections, God calls it. In spite of what I’ve read and heard, even from some people who profess to be Baptists, not just they profess to be Christians, they profess to be Baptist Christians who will say, well, it’s really just the promiscuity that’s the problem. God’s okay with homosexuality in a monogamous relationship, folks.

He calls it vile affections. That doesn’t sound to me like something God is in favor of. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.

And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the women burned in their lusts toward one another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat. And so God says, again as I said this morning, I won’t go into graphic detail about what’s going on, you can figure that out. But God says these things that they began to do were unseemly, and he said they received in themselves the recompense error which was meat.

Folks, there are consequences for sin. There are still consequences for sin. There are eternal consequences when mankind who’s rejected God goes before him in judgment, but folks, there are also earthly consequences.

And we see that sin has earthly consequences. We see that sexual sin has earthly consequences. I didn’t bring any statistics here today, but I remember reading several years ago in a Canadian medical journal some of the statistics of different kinds of illnesses and injuries that are more prevalent among homosexuals and just was horrified by this.

Folks, there are natural consequences that come as a result of our disobedience of God. Now, am I saying I’m happy about that? Absolutely not.

I don’t want anybody to get the impression I’m one of those who stands there and cheers for AIDS because anybody’s getting what they deserve. Folks, that’s a heartless perspective to take on things. The fact is all sin has consequences, whether it’s sexual sin, whether it’s the sin I commit on a daily basis, whether it’s the sin in your life, folks, sin has consequences.

And it’s not that God’s harsh, it’s not that the consequences are too much. God says that we receive the recompense of their error which was meat, which was fitting. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, they chose not to accept Him as God, they chose not to believe He was God, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, or those things that were not seemly, those things that were not appropriate, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers.

And we could spend weeks just talking about what each of these mean. But we get the general idea. And folks, as I said this morning, and I want to drive this point home, even as we talk about the sin of homosexuality, we need to make sure that we understand and that the world understands that God’s word condemns the entire array of sins, not just the ones we find socially unacceptable.

But mark my words, he does call homosexuality here a sin. It’s not something he’s okay with in certain circumstances. It’s not something he’s okay with monogamously because this has never been God’s design for us.

His design, if you recall from this morning and just a moment ago, was one man and one woman united in a lifelong covenant that brings him honor and brings us happiness. when done correctly. Folks, it was never his intention.

He calls it vile affections. God uses some incredibly strong language, again through the Apostle Paul, but still it’s God speaking. And I’ll share a story with you just very briefly that I shared with Disciple Way groups.

There’s a pastor, I believe it was Robert Jeffress, who’s now the pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. I believe it was when he was in Wichita Falls. He was called to testify in some kind of hearing.

I an attorney put Dr. Jeffress on the stand and said, did Jesus, I’m sorry, he asked if the Bible said anything about homosexuality. I want to make sure I get the story as accurate as my memory will allow me to.

If the Bible says anything about homosexuality, and he referred them to Deuteronomy, he referred them to Romans, he referred to several other passages. And the attorney said, ah, so what you’re telling me is that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality. And thank you, that was Jefferson’s response.

Yes, he did. Because if you believe as we do, if you believe as the Bible teaches that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and throughly furnished to all good works. And if you believe that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, as the Bible also teaches, then everything the Bible says on the subject of homosexuality, Jesus said.

He uses incredibly strong language when he talks about this sin. Vile affections, he calls it unnatural. He calls it unseemly. Talks about it being the result of a reprobate mind.

Folks, God is not in favor of this. And so if we’re to adhere to God’s perspective on homosexuality, we have got to remember that regardless of what society says, folks, it would be so much easier on us if we would just go along and say, yeah, this is fine. Yeah, do whatever you want.

It would be so much easier on us if we said, yeah, that was for then. He’s not talking about now. But folks, we’ve got to be reminded God did not put an expiration date on any of this.

And when God calls it sin, it’s sin. And it’s always sin. And God also paints the picture here not only of something that is offensive to him, but he paints the picture of something that is destructive to the human being.

Physically, spiritually, emotionally, it is destructive. And even though it’s an affront to God that this goes on, that all sin goes on, by the way, it’s an affront to God, I can’t help but also be reminded that God, when we sinned, he could have just written us off there in the garden and said, you all just kill each other off, I’m done with you. And you know what?

If God had just abandoned us and left us alone, let us kill each other off, and then condemned us to an eternity in hell, he would have been completely justified in doing so because we’d sinned against him and we don’t deserve his grace or his mercy. And yet God, out of compassion and love toward us, revealed himself to us, gave us light, gave us his word, gave us his truth to live by and gave us his son as a sacrifice, as the perfect sacrifice, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins to pay the debt that we owed and could not pay. And so while we could look at this and just see it as a blanket condemnation of the sinner, it’s also, I believe, written and presented out of concern for the sinner.

So while we need to be reminded that it is a sin, it has always been a sin and will always be a sin, regardless of what the world says, regardless of what the Supreme Court says when they come back on this issue. Folks, the Supreme Court is important, but I have to remind you, there’s a Supreme Court in heaven that has a lot longer tenure on the bench and has a lot more authority. Folks, regardless of what they say, we need to be reminded, need to be mindful as God is, as God has intended us to be, that it has always been a sin, it is a sin today and will always be, because it’s offensive to God and it’s destructive to the people that he created and he loved and died for.

Which brings us to the final point this evening. Just as we need to adhere to God’s perspective on homosexuality, Christians need to fulfill our God-given responsibility toward homosexuals. Bet you didn’t think about that, did you, about us having a responsibility toward the homosexual?

Folks, he said back before in the passage we started with this morning in verse 14, he talks to the people at Rome before launching into this, I’ll call it a tirade on sin. Before launching into this, he talks about his concern for them and his concern for the gospel. He says, starting in verse 14, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.

So in other words, he feels like he is indebted, as though he owes something to everybody. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. I don’t believe he’s limiting that to just the church, even though he’s writing to them and saying, you who are at Rome, they were fellow Romans, and their fellow Romans were involved in sin, And he was coming there to preach the gospel to the people at Rome, not just the church at Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Folks, everybody who believes has the same opportunity, has the same access to the grace of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And we’ve talked before about this subject a little bit and how so many of us feel just from knowing people that are involved in this sort of sin that they don’t want to hear it.

Their hearts are hardened. They’re closed. Why should we be concerned?

It’s not possible that anything can even be done. Ladies and gentlemen, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. We can’t change anybody.

We can’t fix anybody. But ladies and gentlemen, the gospel has power we don’t even begin to understand. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith As it is written, the just shall live by faith.

He calls himself a debtor because Paul believed he had a responsibility, he had an obligation, he owed something to the lost and dying world. Folks, we have the same responsibility, we have the same obligation. First of all, he talks about his concern for them, being a debtor.

And in verse 15 says, so as much as in me is, with every fiber of his being, he felt compelled to go to Rome and preach to the ones who were there also. Do we feel that sense of obligation toward our fellow man? First of all, ladies and gentlemen, our responsibility toward the homosexuals, our God-given responsibility is to demonstrate genuine love.

Folks, it was out of genuine love that he wanted to go and speak to the lost and sinning population of the city of Rome. I read this and I see a man who is so antsy, so anxious to get to Rome, he can hardly stand it, can hardly sit still. You know what?

He eventually did go and preach at Rome. A lot of times we can’t be bothered to walk across the street or to pick up the telephone. Folks, we need to demonstrate genuine love to people.

Doesn’t mean we agree with what they do. It doesn’t mean we condone the lifestyle they live. But we need to love people.

Now, how do you do that, folks? God’s going to have to love them through you because it’s not always easy to love the unlovable. It’s not always easy to love people who are not like us.

As I shared this morning, I’ve had more practicing homosexuals at my dinner table than I ever thought there were in Oklahoma. and yet there they were. And I’ll tell you, there were times it was uncomfortable.

There were times I thought, I’d rather just go to the other room and let Christian handle dinner. But folks, God gives us a capacity to love when we don’t have it in ourselves and it is our responsibility to love them. If you saw somebody on the street who was guilty of any number of sins, not necessarily talking about crimes, but guilty of any number of sins, somebody who’d lied, somebody who’d stolen, any number of things, would we automatically treat them like dirt?

Well, some of us might. We might at times, but no. Folks, everybody around us sins. It’s not our default attitude or should not be our default attitude to treat somebody like dirt because of their sins.

And yet, a lot of times, whether it really is that way or they just perceive it that way, a lot of times that’s the perception of the homosexual community toward the churches is that we don’t care about them. We think they’re just dirt under our feet. Folks, it’s time that we wake up, realize our obligation to every sinner around us, to every lost person around us, and start demonstrating the kind of genuine love that Jesus showed, the kind of genuine compassion that Jesus showed for the lost around him.

It is not going to be easy. I’ll caution you on that. It’s not going to be easy.

And you may be sitting there tonight thinking, how am I going to do that? Folks, all I can tell you is ask God. God can give us a capacity to love that we otherwise would not have.

But there again, demonstrating genuine love doesn’t mean we sugarcoat the truth. If someone’s standing in the street and a bus is about to run them over. Is it loving to say, well, that’s their choice.

I’m just going to let them stand there. Is that loving? Anybody?

No, that’s not a demonstration of genuine love. It’s more loving to shout, hey, get out of the street. Folks, the judgment of God is a lot greater.

It’s a lot more fearful a thing than having a bus come barreling down on us. And yes, it may hurt. It may sting.

But genuine love is best demonstrated by preaching redemption through Jesus Christ. People may not understand it. Oh, you don’t really love me. You’re just here to convert me.

Folks, we want to convert you because we love you, because we recognize what’s going on here. And we have a responsibility to share not only with the homosexual, but all people who are outside of Christ, all those still mired in sin and all that this world has to offer, to share with them the fact that we have a Savior who has died to pay for the sin that they cannot escape from and cannot pay for themselves. A Savior who took our sins and bore them within himself, bore them to Calvary, and he was nailed through to the cross, and he shed his blood and he died for the very sins that he took upon himself, their sins.

Folks, I submit to you that’s the most loving conversation we could ever have with anybody, is to share with them that greatest news that there is in all of the history of the world. And I’ll also tell you, if we have a pattern of demonstrating genuine love to them beforehand, we’re liable to get a different response. Not saying that you show people enough love and you can trick them into trusting Christ, but we’re more likely to get a hearing when we’ve demonstrated love to people.

Folks, we have a responsibility to love these people. We’re willing to love everybody else. Folks, they’re no different.

They’re cut from the same cloth as all of us.