Towards the end of the last presidential debate there was finally a question on something that has the potential to be far more devastating to more people’s lives than a terrorist attack or even a war. The moderator asked “Homosexuality, is it a choice?”
-One of the candidates answered with a very strong religious statement. It wasn’t George Bush because he answered, “I don’t know” -It was Senator John Kerry who said - "We’re all God’s children," he said. "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was. She’s being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not a choice." The reason it is important if homosexuality is important is because most people would not want to deny to homosexuals any civil right including marriage if they are created by God to be homosexual or if in secular parlance – they are born that way.
-well I have got an idea, since we are invoking God on this issue, let’s see what He has to say about the issue in the book HE has given us. The Bible has a lot to say about the issue. -But does this issue even matter? In this upcoming election, the fate of homosexual marriage hangs in the balance, it could very easily become law. If marriage of homosexuals is made legal, civil rights issues regarding homosexuals will explode.
-we have heard that homosexuals just wanted not to be discriminated against, then they wanted benefits at work for their partners, then they said they wanted civil unions with just some of the benefits of marriage and once the sodomy law from Texas was struck down by the Supreme Court within months they were ignoring state laws and marrying one another anyway and demanding full affirmation of their lifestyle.
So what are the stakes in the upcoming election? One or two more judges on the Supreme Court may be appointed by the next President. If they favor full rights of homosexuals to marry, the whole concept of the traditional family could be in the rearview mirror.
- The NEA, the National Education Association is already pushing for total acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle by teachers and in the curriculum of our kid’s schools. What would happen if they got marriage law on their side to promote that lifestyle as normal and healthy, even preferable?
-Textbooks could be required by law to present homosexuality in a positive light.
-Teachers could be required to only speak in positive terms about homosexuality or lose their jobs.
-Groups such as churches and even kids groups like the Boy Scouts could be compelled not to discriminate against homosexuals in hiring or leadership in their own organizations or lose all access to public funding or access to public facilities or even tax exempt status.
-As we continue our series called “Vote the Rock!” on how followers of Christ can get involved in the political process – I want to make clear that I am not speaking on this because I hate homosexuals. This morning I truly believe I am speaking in their defense – God offers a better way to them. A more happy, healthy satisfying life. They can be “Truly Gay”.
How to speak up for God’s plan for sex and marriage:
1) Know that God is against homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27).
-That the Bible forbids homosexuality is hard to deny. Let’s look at the evidence
Old Testament
-the account of Sodom and Gomorrah may be the first thing people think of when they think of the Bible’s view of homosexuality
-Genesis 19:4-5 Before the men (angels) went to sleep, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them (literally: “to know them”). -That they intended to have homosexual sex is clear that Lot says Genesis 19:6-7 But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.
– but a passage in Jude totally settles this whole question about the fact that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in large part because of their homosexuality -Jude 7 - just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
-BUT there are passages in the OT which say that God destroyed Sodom for other reasons too – it wasn’t just homosexuality - Ezekiel 16:49-Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.
Leviticus 18:22 - ‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 ‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
-some people ridicule these passages by saying the Old Testament law in Leviticus also forbids eating pork and wearing cloth that is blended – so they say if you had bacon this morning before you put on your polyester and cotton blended clothes you have sinned too. So why do we selectively apply the passages out about homosexuality?
-But this criticism of the Levitical position on homosexuality fails to understand that the Law can be broken down into three divisions of the OT Law – two of which God never intended to be permanent - The Civil Law; The Ceremonial Law - The Moral Law – which has at its base the Ten Commandments which give us guidance on God’s permanent will for our life – do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, commit adultery. So how do you know which passages from the law are meant to be carried forward into the church age? The New Testament is an excellent commentary on the interpretation and application of the Old Testament.
-Move to the New Testament -Many pro-homosexual readers of the Bible claim that “Jesus never mentioned homosexuality” in the Gospels -but let me list some things that Jesus never talked about directly -wife-beating or husband-beating -incest -child molestation -cannibalism - bestiality -I don’t think anyone thinks Jesus approves of those behaviors
-but Jesus did talk about the only valid and divinely approved sexual relationship – male and female marriage – Matthew 19:3-6 - Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?" And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." - Jesus is saying don’t mess with God’s Genesis plan for sex and marriage – this is the standard – a man and a woman married for life and exclusively committed to each other and having sex with each other
-I have a $100 dollar bill here in my hand - if I was going to teach you how to separate genuine $100 dollar bills from all the counterfeits we would take a dollar and say this is how it should look – everything else is fake. Both heterosexuals and homosexuals, married and unmarried need to go back to the standard. Marriage is not man’s idea, it is God’s idea. We ignore His blueprint to our own destruction,.
-Paul the Apostle continues with the same emphasis of God’s original intention in Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
-notice how he emphasizes that homosexuality is a perversion of the natural order – it is against nature – Realize that so many arguments of pro-homosexual theology turn to God’s creation or to nature in general when they point out that some animals engage in homosexual behaviors. The argument goes like this: 1) animals engage in homosexual behavior – 2) animals only do what God programs into them in the form of instincts, 3) therefore homosexuality is natural and from God
-but animals are not a very good gauge for what should be normal or natural in man – did you ever watch one of those shows on lions – I am totally fascinated by lions – their power, their interaction but lions do some really cruel things – when a male lion or a couple of male lions take over a new pride of lionesses – do you know the first thing they do? – they kill all the baby lion cubs and often eat them – Yeah I didn’t see that in the Lion King movie – why do they do that? as soon as the males kill the babies they know the mothers will go immediately into heat and they can then breed again and start a new family – I don’t think anyone thinks that that is a good or natural or normal way to start new human families.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - 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, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 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.
-Homosexuals – 1 Corinthians 6:9 arsenokoiths - arsenokoites – men copulators
-Effeminate – 1 Corinthians 6:9 malakos - malakos -soft clothing -effeminate in homosexual “Such were some of you” -also shows that people can change and that homosexuality isn’t permanent.
1 Timothy 1:8-10 …The law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.
-Homosexuals – 1 Timothy 1:10 (arsenokoiths - arsenokoites)
-So if God says that it is wrong and holds people accountable for this sin – then people are not created homosexual and not approved by God to live this way.
The Argument from Science
-we need not be intimidated by this at all - There are popular studies which have supposedly proven that homosexuality is genetic and people are born that way. These studies have been very misinterpreted and misrepresented by the media. Both studies have numerous problems but let me just give you very surprising summaries of the studies by the authors themselves.
-Simon LeVay, after his male partner died of AIDS, by his own admission set out to prove that homosexuality is genetic. He concluded that an area of the brain in the hypothalamus that has something to do with the sex drive is the same size in women as it is in gay men. "It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. I did not prove that homosexuality was genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay. I didn’t show that gay men were born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a gay center in the brain" (Sex in the Brain, Nimmons, 1994, p. 64).
-Dean Hamer, the author of the "gay gene" study. But Hamer himself, "Homosexuality is not purely genetic...environmental factors play a role. There is not a single master gene that makes people gay...I don’t think we will ever predict who will be gay" (Mitchell, 1995).
Now there have been truly scientific studies done of Identical twins which have identical genes. If homosexuality was a biological condition produced inescapably by genes then if one identical twin is homosexual, in 100% of the cases his or her twin should be as well. Using a sample of 14,000 Australian twins, they found that if one twin was homosexual, 38% of the time his identical brother was too. For lesbianism, the rate of concordance was 30%. If homosexuality was genetic the rate should be right near 100%!
**AND there are many studies with scientifically and statistically strong samples that people have actually changed their sexual orientation. go to www.peoplecanchange.com for more on those studies.
The Argument from Logic
-“Why would I chose a lifestyle where people hate you and you have to hide it” – there is a lot of sin that gets hidden by an awful lot of people – just because someone has an urge from a young age doesn’t mean that God put it there – how many very young kids are tempted to lie? – imagine a pedophile trying to use that in court – “Your honor, I know that molested the child but I have had that urge from a very young age and I have tried to get rid of it over and over and it won’t go away and God hasn’t taken it away so
-Pedophiles have had that urge to touch sexually from a very young age – are we going to say that God made them that way?
How to speak up for God’s plan for sex and marriage:
1) Know that God is against homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27).
2) Speak out against homosexuality (Ephesians 5:11).
Ephesians 5:11 - Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.
We are to do what is commanded in Ephesians 4:15 to “Speak the truth in love”
Again I say out of compassion for people caught in the homosexual behavior that the “Gay” lifestyle? is anything but. Statistics show that homosexuals have a much higher illegal drug dependence, a 6 times greater suicide rate, According to the Centers for Disease Control, homosexual men are 1000 times more likely to contract AIDS than the general male heterosexual population. Homosexual activists David Island and Patrick Letellier have written, "The probability of violence occurring in a gay couple is mathematically double the probability of that in a heterosexual couple." Gay men are not very monogamous – the average legal gay marriage in the Netherlands lasts a year and a half. 24 percent of gay men had over 100 partners. 43 percent of gay men had over 500 partners. 28 percent of gay men had over 1000 partners.
-So how should we speak out? Should we legislate against homosexuality? Should we Amend the Constitution to prevent gay marriage? Yes because the way our system is set up now, all it will take is one state to accept homosexual marriage by voter referendum and legislature approval and court backing. The U.S. Constitution has the Full Faith and Credit clause requirement that states must recognize laws and therefore marriages conducted in other states. So if one state has gay marriage then all of them will be required to honor those marriages. People will move to one state get married and then move back.
-If change the definition of marriage at all – as Europe has seen, the marriage rate will go down. People lose respect for the institution all together and more and more children will be born out of wedlock.
-Polygamists
-Asexuals wanting to “marry” – why limit it to two? One in 100 adults asexual say "I have never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all."
Tools to Silence us -We should not be Intimidated -“homophobia” – “Intolerant”
-The greatest tool is desensitization –news reports – TV and movies and Will and Grace
How to speak up for God’s plan for sex and marriage:
1) Know that God is against homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27).
2) Speak out against homosexuality (Ephesians 5:11).
3) Offer freedom to those struggling with homosexuality (Galatians 5:6).
Jimmy Swaggart made the news recently because he said during a sermon – “And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died”.
Jesus to his disciples when they wanted to bring fire out of heaven on the Samaritans who didn’t receive Jesus –“You don’t know what spirit you are of, I came to save people not destroy them”. There will be judgment in the end for all sin but in the meantime our spirit should be to win these people to Christ and His way
-fundamental misunderstanding of sin and the flesh – sin will not be eradicated out of us until heaven – God may take away the urges of sin so that it is not a temptation at all but he may not – the point is that fleshly urges will always be with us but they are not who we are!!!!
True freedom- Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
