Matthew 19:4-6-“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
INTRODUCTION: A lot of sacred institutions are under attack in America. We have seen the rise of progressive, left-leaning, liberal ideology saturate our cultural institutions for decades and now many institutions that were once respected and held in high regard are now under attack. The nuclear family, law and order in our communities, education of our youth, gender roles in society and also marriage. Our culture is trying to redefine genders, roles in the family, the service of our military men and women and As Christians it doesn’t really matter what our opinions of marriage are or whether or not we think that it should be re-defined or not. What should matter to believers like us is what the Bible and God says about marriage and what a marriage is or isn’t.
The Bible clearly defines marriage for anyone who would care to read it for themselves and there really are no gray areas even though some people will attempt to say that there are. Marriage is biblically defined as a holy union ordained by God to be between one man and one woman.
No human being, no act of congress, no ruling by the SCOTUS or a group of people in one society created marriage.
1. MARRIAGE DEFINED IN THE SCRIPTURES
Marriage goes all the way back to Genesis. In Genesis chapter 1 verses 27 and 28 we read this:
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
And also, in Genesis chapter 2 verses 21-25 we read this:
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
There is a common denominator emerging here. In all the verses of Scripture that I know of marriage is ALWAYS defined as being between a man and a woman.
The debate here in America and elsewhere has centered mainly on the “freedom” to marry no matter what gender the two people may be. Again, there is nowhere in Scripture where any marriage that is described, and there are many marriages described in the Bible, where the two people are of the same sex.
To the contrary there are various Scripture references that tell us that same sex partners are unacceptable and sinful. Not any more sinful than sins that relate to heterosexual people but sinful none the less.
2. GOD’S WORD CONCERNING HOMOSEXUALITY
In the Old Testament God spoke to us about homosexuality and how it is sinful. In Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22 we read this: "You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act."
In the New Testament there are also Scripture passages that deal with homosexual behavior and call it sinful.
In Romans chapter 1 verses 26-27 we read this: "For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."
Also, in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9-11 we read this: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."
Now I want you to pay special attention to what these verses of Scripture say to us today. Not only that homosexuality is wrong but that Jesus can set people free from this sin of homosexuality just like He can set anyone free whatever sin or sins they may be in bondage to. RE-READ VERSE 11, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
3. SATANIC DECEPTION CONCERNING MARRIAGE
One big point of the same sex-marriage debate is to try to get as many people as possible to not only tolerate gay marriage but to accept it and even to try to get us as Christians to embrace it and put it on the same level as marriage that is ordained by God.
This argument causes us to lose focus as believers in what is really happening here. There is a satanic bait and switch happening here. A big part of the argument for gay marriage is that they want us to believe and accept that their homosexuality is not a choice but rather a genetic absolute that they cannot possibly have any control over. This has been pervasive for nearly thirty years now. This is simply not true.
In 1993 Dr. Dean Hamer studied 40 pairs of non-identical gay brothers and claimed that 33 had inherited the same x-linked genetic markers indicating a genetic cause for homosexuality. Without any scientific confirmation----the media latched on to this story and exaggerated his findings to say there was a gay gene. Hamer’s study was quickly proved misleading---and it didn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny. And within a year it had been proven that no such gene existed. Since that time following this disclosure, Dr. Hamer has admitted his theory and findings were never true---when asked about this he and others in the gay rights movement have said, “It doesn’t matter now, people already believe it and its made life easier for homosexuals.”
So now that we understand that homosexuality is a choice and that gay people can be set free from this sin problem through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ just like we all have been forgiven of our various pre-salvation sins, then why do they insist on having us accept their sinful behavior and want us to help them to re-define marriage into something that God absolutely forbids it to be?
Because it’s just not as simple as that. When we look at issues like gay marriage we really must look deeper and broader than the just the issue of gay marriage. We already have acknowledged that God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman right? What God ordains for us is always good right? And we can all agree that sin is bad and bad for us right? Who is the father of sin? Satan is of course and he always wants to tear down and destroy that which God has ordained to be good in our lives.
God cannot and will not bless gay marriage no matter how many people here in America think that He should or will. Regardless of whether the SCOTUS rules to allow same sex marriage, God will never accept it or condone it. And we as Christians have to stand with God in the defense of biblically ordained marriage.
Satan and his forces are using words to beat our voices down and to intimidate us into keeping silent. Political correctness and now currently the woke mentality has many Christians afraid to stand up and proclaim the truth.
Satan and his minions will call us homophobic, haters, bigoted, and they will tell us that we don’t love them. I beg to differ with them. I am none of those things and I love homosexual people enough to tell them the truth about sin and who can set them free from their sins!
Satan wants us to believe that the gay marriage issue is all about love. Love between two people and nothing else matters not even their genders. But what Satan knows and most people either don’t know or don’t want to accept is that this is not love. It’s really a slippery slope that once we start to go down it there are not a whole lot of ways to stop our descent into more sinful definitions of marriage.
By changing our laws on a federal level to allow gay marriage to occur all across this nation and the basis of that would be because people should be allowed to marry whoever they love regardless of gender but what happens next?
Where does it end? Under these kinds of laws people would be able to say that they love their brother or sister or that they want to marry their mom or dad, they may even want to marry an animal or whatever.
These things may seem far-fetched but I am here to tell you that when God laid out the rules for who we could have relationships with and who we couldn’t all of the things that I just listed God has said are unacceptable to Him.
Look at what is written in this excerpt of scripture form Leviticus chapter 18: 6-24-“‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. 7 “‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her. 9 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. 23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. 24 “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.
Verse 24 tells us why God gave us these and many other relationship restrictions it was so that the Israelites wouldn’t become defiled by their relationships like the ungodly people Canaan did. Do you see why Satan wants us to change the definition of marriage an accept what the culture defines marriage to be? It seems to be all about fairness and love but what it is really all about is destroying the greatest nation this world has ever known to date from the inside out.
If we as believers allow this redefinition of marriage to happen then we will have been a part of possibly the greatest tragedy that this country has ever known. Granted, it will take time but God knows what evil and sinfulness mankind is capable of as we have just seen in the verses of Leviticus that we just read.
Doesn’t it just seem like common sense that people wouldn’t want to have sexual relations with the people we just read about? There is nothing new under the sun but now it’s our turn to stand up for godly values, principles, and laws.
And don’t misunderstand, it’s not about hating people or judging people it’s about hating what God hates which is sin and loving who He loves, people but we can’t love people and sin at the same time. We have to stand up to people who are doing things that are ungodly no matter what they say to us or call us.
4. FOLLOWING GOD’S DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE
Ephesians 5:28-33-So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
CONCLUSION: We have a mandate from God to uphold and defend the things of God against all forms of attack. And always keep this in the front of your mind when we are fighting this battle that it is really Satan that we’re fighting against and the spiritual darkness and demonic oppression.
