The Sin of Homosexuality and the Grace of the Gospel

**Justin Ader** (0:00)
It's always a true honor to stand before you, to have prepared and prayed, and effort to divide God's word faithfully, to not impose upon it my own ideas or the ideas of man, but to help us to understand it as the Lord's given it, and its context, and for His glory, and for our good, and pray the Lord has good things before us this day. If you grab your Bibles with me, church, and turn to Genesis Chapter 1, the first chapter of your Bible should be easy to find. For decades now, and even more in recent years, we have faced and seen a radical increase in the world's agenda to profane God's good and right design for mankind and for sexual intimacy. The wicked agenda of this fallen sinful world is on full court press as of late to promote different varied levels of sin and kinds of sin, homosexuality and transgenderism and many different forms of sexual immorality and perversion. Secular society is driven, according to Scripture, by a diabolical agenda of Satan and in this has embraced these things and gone so far to deem one of the calendar months, the month of June, to set it aside, to promote and to celebrate this sin and its varied perversions, and to increase the gross disrespect to God and his good design. Those supporting these ideologies have ironically used the rainbow as its symbol and the sin of pride as its mantra. In light of this ongoing full court press, the elders decided it would be fitting to again pause one more Sunday on our sermon series through Luke. It's been such a joy. So I could attempt to preach in one sermon on this topic in an effort to help us to see and savor God's good word and what He has said about these things so that we can understand them rightly, we can understand them biblically, we can understand them lovingly. Your elders understand that this can be a sensitive subject, especially for some of you because of proximity of those who are near you, those who are dear to you, who have struggled with these kinds of sin and or maybe you yourself have struggled with some of these kinds of varied sexual sins and impurity. And thankfully, God is not silent on this issue. And so we don't have to conjecture, we don't have to guess, we can not be in the business of just sharing our own opinions and kind of living there. Instead, we can plant ourselves firmly in God's good written word to proactively understand what he gives and combat anything in us that might cause us to elevate our own personal opinions or longings or experiences over what God declares is good and right and loving. There needs to be no mystery when it comes to this topic, for God's word is clear and authoritative to inform our thinking, our convictions, and our practices. 2 Corinthians 10, 4, and 5, 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. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 helps us as well. Trust in the Lord with all of your hearts. Do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. God is the Almighty Creator Church, the Sustainer, the Ruler of everything. He is perfect, and the standard by which all things are measured. That's Word of Truth, Catechism, Question 1, answering, who is God? With so much to cover, look with me at Genesis 1 and quickly then 2, and let's just begin our journey here on this topic, where God started when it comes to his design of mankind specifically as male and female. Genesis chapter 1, 27, the first part of 28 says, So God created man in his own image. The image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Also turn with me to Genesis 2, look with me at verse 18 and then 21-25. In verse 18, God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make for him a helper fit for him. Verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And then the man said, This is that last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. It's here that we see that God is the one who created mankind, and he created mankind distinctly male and female. And God is the one who ordains and created marriage, and designs sexual intimacy for marriage. It's upon God's authority, the one who made all things, the one who rules over all things, that he gets to define the place and the purpose, right, of how these things are to be and to work, right? As a pastor, I have the God-given obligation to speak of these things according to God's word, because it's my job to help rightly teach and defend God's authoritative word in how he commands the world to work and what we're to do, not do. It's also all of mankind's obligation as God's creation to submit to God's design and authority on these things. To do otherwise is nothing short of prideful arrogance and utter sinful rebellion. What this means is no institution, no high-ranking government or culture or person has the authority to redefine or reorder the decree, the design, the purpose of how mankind is made, how marriage is to be as God declared it to be. God's word says that he made them male and female, two biologically distinct creatures created with an important design and purpose. God's word says he made holy marriage to be a mysterious union of two people, a man and a woman, to become one flesh, the covenants of marriage. In this, God defines the construct of the family. A new family begins at that wedding altar. A very specific design is also given for a bond that God designed for marriage to thrive, something to be cherished and valued and practiced. Sexual intimacy is good for marriage and God's way of creating more of mankind in procreation. This only happens in the sexual union of one man and one woman. The creator of the universe designed and instituted marriage and procreation to be between one biological man and one biological woman. Not many men and not many women, but one in one. Marriage is not between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, and neither is procreation. Because God made mankind distinctly male and female, the sexual orientation that one is to live out is not up to that person to decide. That's arrogance and pride. It's not up to that person's parents to decide. That's not given to them. It's not up to that person's government or society to decide. It's up to God to decide. A person knows what sex they are by God's assignment of their sexual organs. They are either male or female and this does not change. So let's stand firmly on this major foundational point of the creation ordinance that is to remain until this creation is done. Mankind does not hold the rights to rewrite or redefine what God has defined in his creation ordinance, nor are we to embrace any line of thinking opposite of this in the name of peace or tolerance or of some other version of love. It doesn't matter again what the culture or the government says. We're ultimately to honor the law of God above the law of man. We're to honor the law of man unless it's contradictory to the law of God. And we honor God, and we do not honor the law of man when it's and sinful. It also doesn't matter what the popular vote is among our society. God didn't say take a poll and decide. It doesn't matter what most beloved family members or friends might declare to you is happening in their life. They don't get to redefine what God has made clear. These things are simply not ours to change. And in the end, we're not loving those to think it benefits their life to endorse what is sexually immoral or impure. To do that endorsement is to be anti-God. It is to embrace emotional and mental disorders and call them good and right and normal. This is not love. We do not love people to participate in their deception or lie. We love them to speak and live in the truth of God. So the question that begs to be asked is, where did mankind go wrong? How do we get here? And we have a particular place in scripture that we can go to and exegete and spend some time with, and that's in Romans chapter 1 If you'll turn there now to your New Testament, just after the Gospels, find Romans and look to chapter 1 with me.