“The Untouchables – Homosexuality”
Gladstone Baptist Church – 3/9/06 pm
I want to start tonight by playing a News video clip from ABC…
S1 Play a clip from the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Ask congregation :
- What is your reaction to that clip?
- What is your reaction to the people featured in that clip?
S2 - There are some things in our society that we as Christians view as being far worse than others. We set ourselves up as judge and jury. Introduce Sermon Series. But God doesn’t rank sins – we rank sin, God doesn’t. - OOPS
You know, I am not surprised by those comments. When I look at those images. I am repulsed by them. I think it is absolutely sick that people would want to openly parade the fact that they are gay or lesbian. I wonder what in the world would make these people want to give up the brilliance of a male – female relationship for something that I consider such a poor second.
You know, if we sat down and thought about it, there are some things in our society that we as Christians view as being far worse than others. I talking about a scale of morality here.
- There are some behaviours which we see as being almost saintly – you know, the Mother Teresa type of acts – helping the sick and poor. We often put missionaries in this category
- Then there are the good things – like being nice to your neighbour, telling the truth, etc.
- Then there are the bad, but not so bad things – like telling a white lie, being envious of your neighbours garden or new boat, gossiping, deceiving someone. You know – the sorts of bad things that you and I get up to.
- Then there are the really bad things. Things like murder and child molestation. Being involved with witchcraft or being a rapist. It is in this category that we put homosexuals.
We have in our mind this scale of morality. We’ve all got one and we typically like to think that we are more positive than negative in our behaviour. We make sure this is the case, by putting others lower on the scale than we are. We essentially set ourselves up as judge and jury of morality issues. And we wouldn’t dream of associating with the people on the bottom of the scale. They are the untouchables – those who are beyond help and beyond salvation.
Tonight, I want to begin a short series on homosexuality – a group of people who we perceive as unreachable. In our Christian mindset, they are people we see as beyond salvation’s grasp – or at least beyond our help. They are already lost and we don’t want to have anything to do with them. But I think that if we were to see them through God’s eyes, we would see just another sinner, just like what we were.
S3 - God sees Homosexuality as being as bad as people who are envious, deceitful, slanders, proud, gossips, or even people who disobey their parents. - UGH
You see, as I read the Bible I read that God sees Homosexuality as being evil, wrong and bad for us as individuals and as a society. But he puts on the same run on the morality scale people who are envious, deceitful, slanders, proud, gossips, or even people who disobey their parents.
What’s the matter – you are looking a bit shocked! I know what your thinking … You are thinking that my last statement is a bit harsh. “Doesn’t God condemn homosexuality more than other minor sins?” you ask.
It is true that he condemns homosexuality.
- The whole town of Sodom was destroyed for its wickedness – homosexuality was one of the specific items mentioned.
- God says that gay and lesbian relationships are detestable and those who practice it are to be killed (Lev 18:22, 20:13). ‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads
- Male prostitution was seen as a detestable act. It is said that this was why the Canaanite tribes were driven out of their land by God. (1 Ki 14:24,
- 1 Cor 6:9 says that homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God. They won’t be saved.
Now that is pretty serious stuff, it looks as if is it justifiable to judge homosexuality as one of those sins worse than others. But hang on, let’s look at honouring your parents – one we don’t really think is that serious, because we’ve all dishonoured our parents at some stage.
- Honouring your Parents was one of the 10 commandments. Ex 20:12, Deut 5:16
- Children were put to death if they struck their parents or cursed their parents – Lev 21:15, 17
- Children were put to death if they rebelled against their parents and refused to obey. – Deut 21:18-21
- Paul reinforced this command - Eph 6:1-2, Col 3:20,
- Jesus even upheld the law in Matt 15:3f , 19:19 by calling those who refused to honour their parents hypocrites
I want to put it to you that we don’t see rebellious children as being nearly as bad as homosexuals. Many of us sitting here would have been classed as rebellious teenagers in the past, and some of us still are.
The point I am trying to make here is that God sees homosexuality as sin and therefore it is serious. He sees it as being just as serious as people who are envious, people who are deceitful, people who slander others (we’d call them back stabbers), people who are proud, people who gossip, or even people who disobey their parents.
If you have your bibles there, open them up to Rom 1:21.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. [This is the part I want you to take note of at the moment. Paul is talking about people who have replaced God with other things. He is condemning for that and the wickedness that they are displaying in their lives. He has already noted above the wickedness of homosexuality that some of them display, but now he provides another list …] 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
I want to examine this passage a bit more soon, so don’t close your bibles, but for now I want you to take particular note of that last list. It has many of the sins that you and I commit. Sins that we would rate as being bad, but not too bad on our morality list. But that is our list, not God’s
God lists gossip, deceit, envy, boasting, greed, disobedience to parents along with murder, God-haters, ruthless people and homosexuals. God considers all sin as serious. Where does our morality scale come from then? It is our invention. It is not biblical. It is our way of making ourselves feel better about ourselves, but is completely wrong.
S4 - Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible. Why? Because it is an indication of that People have rebelled against God. (Trace the Argument in Rom 1:21ff). The root problem is our rebellion and this is manifest in many sins including many we are guilty of. We are right to condemn, but in so doing we must condemn ourselves. - AHA
Don’t get me wrong here. I know that God views homosexuality as evil, wrong and bad. He condemns it outright and so should we. But he condemns it just like he condemns every sin.
Why does he condemn it? Because it is an indication that people have rebelled against God.
Look again in Romans 1. Here Paul has an argument that he lays down and he repeats it 3 times (once in vs 23-24. Than again in vs 25-27 and finally again in vs 28-32). When repetition like that happens in the Bible, you can be sure that the argument being presented is incredibly important and needs to be understood. So let’s try to do that.
Paul says in vs 21 that the people of this world knew God, but they chose not to give Him the glory he deserved. Listen to how the Message puts vs 21-22.
21What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. 22They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. (MSG)
In fact they didn’t just fail to give God the glory He deserved which would have been bad enough, but Paul says that …
a) These foolish people chose to replace God with other things.
1. Vs 23 says they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. They replaced God with Idols. And not all idols are physical either. .
2. Vs 25 says they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Jesus said that I am the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6). God is truth and so what they did here was to replace God for a lie.
3. Vs 28 says they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God. God’s ideas were discarded and replaced by their own ideas.
God was replaced with man made idols, lies and ideas.
And Paul says that …
b) God’s response was to let them feel the full consequences of their foolish decision.
The message puts it this way … vs 24 So God said, in effect, "If that’s what you want, that’s what you get." What were the consequences of their choice
1. Vs 24 says that God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.
2. Vs 25 says that Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts
3. Vs 28 says that he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done
God allowed them to be ravaged by their sinful desires, their shameful lusts and their depraved minds without any protection what so ever and the end result of these desires, lusts and minds are seen in
c) What resulted were people who practiced immorality and wickedness of all kinds
Again we see the repetition …
1. vs 24 - sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another This is sexual immorality – not necessarily homosexuality. It is an indication of people’s rebellion.
2. vs 26-27 - Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Here we have homosexuality – another indication of people’s rebellion
3. vs 29-32 - this is the list we talked about earlier. Listen to the Message’s version … - And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, 30fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. 31Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. 32And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!
You see, what Paul is really condemning here is not just homosexuality. Homosexuality is just one symptom of the real problem just like lying, cheating, gossiping are symptoms.
The root problem is our rebellion against God. We have replaced God with our idols, our lies and our ideas. What has resulted is a society which God has abandoned to the destructive power of sin. The evidence of that is seen all around us
- In kids that openly rebel against all authority, not just their parents
- In young lives that are destroyed by divorce
- In children who are abused and neglected
- In corporations who reward those who are ruthless and cruel
- In schools that promote evil lifestyles such as homosexuality as viable options for kids
These are all manifestations of our societies’ rebellion and many of the sins we ourselves are guilty of.
It is right to condemn this evil and wickedness in our society, because it is sin. But when we do it, we must be courageous enough to condemn it in our churches, in our homegroups and in our own lives when it turns up there.
We are not immune from these evils just because we are Christians and we are hypocrites if we stand in judgement over others and not ourselves.
S5 - As Christians we need to be firm in our resolve to condemn sinful acts (homosexuality is one of them). It is wrong because it is sin. No questions asked, no debate entered into - WHEE
Most of you here probably know someone who has homosexual leanings or who out and out practices homosexuality. My challenge to you tonight is two fold - to be committed and compassionate.
Firstly condemn this sin as sin - not greater than any other sin, but as serious and important as those you commit yourself. As you call homosexuals to repent and change, we need to be repenting and changing to become more like Christ ourselves. So commit to condemn all sin and don’t be lulled into this false notion that your sins are okay, while someone else’s are serious.
There is no room for debate here. God says that homosexuality is wrong. So tell it as it is and condemn it. Many homosexuals and a growing number of heterosexuals will criticise you for doing so. They will fly the flags of tolerance and discrimination in your face, but imagine that you are standing at the bottom of a cliff and you are watching as someone on the ledge above you is walking backwards, and in a few steps he will surely fall over the edge. You shout, warning him to stop, and before you know it, a crowd gathers around you, snapping your picture and accusing you of “hate speech,” intolerance or bigotry. You are being warned to keep your prejudices to yourself. After all, who are you to tell someone where they can and can’t walk? Who are you to say that someone can’t walk backwards? You are dumbfounded, but the you are, the object of everyone’s wrath.
We know that practicing homosexuality is an indication that a life is actively rebelling against God and that one day, that life will fall headlong into judgement. We are not bigoted or prejudice to call out a warning to someone in danger of being judged by an angry God though some would persist in doing so.
Homosexuality is wrong and because of that it is dangerous. That means homosexuals are sinners – just like you and me. The only difference is, that for most of us sitting here tonight, we’ve found the source of forgiveness. Jesus Christ will forgive us for the things we have done wrong. Let’s continue to condemn the sin we see in this world and call people to repentance.
S6 - But we also need to be compassionate with those who struggle with sin. It is not the unforgiveable sin and we must not treat it that way. - YEAH
But in our condemnation, we must also exhibit compassion. That’s the second thing I want you to do tonight. Show real Compassion for those who are caught up in this sin.
Philip Yancy in his book “What is So Amazing about Grace” records his experiences in helping his friend, Mel White, who is a prominent Christian writer in America, deal with his homosexuality. While he admits that “Mel’s odyssey confused and disturbed” him, however he walked the rocky road with his friend through Mel’s divorce, job-losses, public humiliation, suicide attempts and continued inner turmoil. In the process Yancy met both hurting homosexuals and furious Christians, hurling abuse and taunts. He also met a few Christian leaders who had extended a hand of grace to homosexuals, a gesture of love that was received by longing hearts. He writes …
“At one point, a TV interviewer asked Mel’s parents on-camera, “You know what other xns are saying about your son. They say he’s an abomination. What do you think about that?”
“Well,” the mother answered in a sweet, quavery voice, “he may be an abomination, but he’s still our pride and joy.”
That line has stayed with me because I came to see it as a heartrending definition of grace. I came to see that Mel White’s mother expressed how god views every one of us. In some ways we are all abominations to god – All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – and yet somehow, against all reason, God loves us anyhow. Grace declares that we are still God’s pride and joy.
Homosexuals, just like everyone alive on this planet are sinners – abominations to God. And they, like everyone else, need to be introduced to Jesus Christ who can forgive them. Don’t think that Homosexuality is an unforgivable sin – it isn’t. Neither is adultery, incest, murder or rebellion against your parents.
God can and will forgive a homosexual if he or she repents and asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that God will automatically take away the sexual orientation that a homosexual has for members of the same sex. That would be like us expecting that when we become a Christian we will never struggle again with any of our sinful desires. It doesn’t happen does it, some of us Christians still struggle with pornography. Some of us still struggle with anger or gossip or gambling or what ever it is. The cravings to sin may still be strong, but the forgiveness from God covers our sins.
And God’s love is there also – a love that is so great that He won’t leave us as we are, but work to change us into the likeness of his son.
So Compassionately seek to find opportunities to share the grace, love and forgiveness that Jesus offers with those around you. Homosexuals are not untouchable people, but rather those who crave love and acceptance. They need to hear about Jesus and they need us to tell them.
Next Sunday night, I want to talk again about homosexuality and some of the myths that our media and society would like us to believe about it. Maybe some of you here tonight are struggling with gender issues and your own sexual orientation. I encourage you to come back next week to hear the truths behind some of these myths and also hear some practical steps in which you can keep your sexual desires under control.
