18 – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
19 – 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.
20 – Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
21 – and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
22 – Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
23 – They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-Who is forever praised. Amen.
24 – Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
25 – 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.
26 – 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.
27 – 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,
28 – slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
29 – they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
30 – 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.
You know some things just seem to GO TOGETHER. I mean, you can’t think of the one without automatically thinking about the other and I suppose we link them together in our minds like this because one seems to be INCOMPLETE without the other. It’s just not as good alone as it is in the company of its complimentary counterpart. Let’s try a little word association and I’ll show you what I mean. I’ll say one word and you say the first thing that comes into your mind: Peanut butter and…[Jelly]. Socks and….[shoes]. Soup and…[sandwich]. Hugs and…[kisses]. Salt and…[pepper]. Love and…[marriage].
Great! Okay….let’s do one more: Conviction and…[COMPASSION]. Now, we may not sense this LAST combination as easily as we did the other pairs but I want us to understand this morning that for Christians-especially grace-driven Christians-conviction must ALWAYS be combined with compassion. They DO go together…like socks and shoes, peanut butter and jelly, hugs and kisses. You see, if you only have ONE of the two, you’re imbalanced and headed for trouble. If for example you are a person with great conviction but no compassion, well you’ll become just like those love-less Pharisees and Sadducees, people who were so judgmental that their hearts became hardened to the point that they were no longer sensitive to the needs of others. Scripture warns of this imbalance when it says in I Corinthians 13 that if we …speak in the tongues of men and angels…if we have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries…
…and all knowledge and if we have the faith to move mountains…[in other words….if we have all this conviction] …but have no love [or compassion]…we are nothing.
And, on the other hand, if we are people of ONLY compassion with no real beliefs, no convictions, then we become people who are merely sentimental…people with no conscience-no moral base-people like those described in this morning’s text who suppress the truth and as a result have, depraved minds and do what ought not to be done.
So you see, Christians must be BOTH people of CONVICTION, living their lives according to the truth of God’s word, and people of Christlike COMPASSION, whose hearts break for sinners even as they hate their sin.
I believe that this is especially true when it comes to the way we deal with homosexuality.
And if we were honest I think we would have to admit that many Christians have been somewhat lopsided in their response to this issue. We have been VERY good at communicating our convictions about this topic-but VERY POOR at showing compassion for people who choose this lifestyle. Many of us need to repent and ask forgiveness for the hate we have expressed toward the homosexual community. We are NEVER justified for anything LESS than loving people…no matter what their sin.
Now, before we go any further, let me share some assumptions that I bring to this message so that you can see where I come from in all of this.
- First of all, like many of you, I know someone who has made this lifestyle their choice. There is an individual who is near and dear to me who has willfully disobeyed God’s Word and embraced homosexuality. I love this person but I hate what they do. So, I’m definitely not what you would call homophobic. This morning I simply want to compassionately speak what I honestly believe God wants me to say about this issue.
- Secondly, I want you to know that I am one who believes that Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL of life, not just part of it. In other words, I feel that TRUE disciples of Jesus will not compartmentalize their faith. In EVERY area of their lives…including their sexuality…growing Christians will seek to conduct themselves in ways that please our Lord, which leads me to a third assumption.
- You see, I believe that the main way we KNOW how God wants us to conduct our lives is by reading the Bible. God’s written Word-not culture, not experience, not tradition-no, the Bible-is the ONLY trustworthy guide for faith and practice. Scripture then, is the MAIN source of MY convictions when I say that I believe the practice of homosexuality is sinful. It is an act that is clearly contrary to God’s will. Now, many people these days feel that it’s wrong to interpret the Bible in this way so let’s pause and briefly examine the texts that deal with this practice so that we can understand exactly what God says about this area of sexuality.
The first reference to homosexual acts is found in Genesis 19 : the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
You’ll remember that Lot, Abrahams’ nephew, lived in Sodom and that God had said that the sin of these cities was so wicked and vile that He would destroy them both. Well, many people, myself included, feel that part of the sin that made God feel this way was the sin of homosexuality which was both prevalent and accepted in that society. I say this because two men-angels-came to visit Lot and he welcomed them into his home. And verse 5 says that later that night, all of the men of Sodom gathered around Lot’s place, and asked him to allow these men to come out to them so that, as the text says, they could, ‘KNOW’ them.
Scripture says that when Lot refused these men became angry and nearly broke down the door to his home in order to get to these two strangers. Verse 9 says that if the angels had not stricken them blind, these wicked men certainly would have stopped at nothing to enter the home and satisfy their evil desires.
Some people argue though, that the word know doesn’t refer to sexual activity at all. They point out that the Hebrew verb used here, which is yada appears 943 times in the Old Testament and that only ten of those times this verb is used to refer to physical intercourse. Their reasoning then is that since the verb yada is used in a NON-sexual sense in the vast majority of times, it would be inappropriate in this context to interpret it in a sexual way. These people say that the reason the men of Sodom were angry was because Lot, a resident alien, had welcomed strangers into his home, who were potentially threatening into the community. And therefore, what the men of the community were really asking for was an opportunity to become acquainted with these strangers…to get to KNOW them. In their opinion then, the SIN of these Sodomite men then, was to invade the privacy of Lot’s home in such a way that they flouted the ancient rules of hospitality.
People who argue from this angle also point out that in other places in the Old Testament, Sodom’s sin is NOT referred to as being homosexuality. For example, Isaiah suggests that Sodom’s sin was hypocrisy or social injustice. In Jeremiah it’s depicted as a case of adultery and deceit. And there is an element of truth in THIS part of their reasoning…for homosexuality was but ONE of Sodom’s sins. In Ezekiel 16:49-50 God says, Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them.
Now, I of course disagree with people who make this interpretation and here’s why: You see, although the verb yada is only used ten times in scripture to refer to a sex act, six of those times are found right here in the book of Genesis and one of those six times is in this particular text. Note that in verses 7 & 8 Lot answered the request, or rather the demand, of the men of Sodom by saying, You can have my two daughters who have never been with a man. And this offer of women, is certainly sexually connotative. I mean, if the men simply wanted to get acquainted with the strangers in their midst, Lot would not have offered his daughters because he would be suggesting that they could instead get acquainted with these women whom they were already familiar with. And that of course just doesn’t make sense. Also, Judges 19:23 describes the sin of Sodom as vile, and disgraceful which I’m sure you would agree are extreme adjectives to apply to the sin of inhospitality. And finally, in his New Testament epistle Jude affirms that the activity at Sodom was indeed homosexual although he suggest it was but ONE of many sinful activities of this city from whose name we get the term sodomy. Homosexuality then IS at least one of the things that made God mad enough to destroy the place.
But these aren’t the only texts in the Bible where homosexual practice is condemned. Both Leviticus 18:22 and 19:13 say that it is detestable for, a man to lie with a man as one lies with a woman. I Corinthians 6:9 says, do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders…nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. I Timothy 1:10 says that God’s law was made for, those who are lawless and rebellious…for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching…
Now, some look at THESE scriptures as being irrelevant because they say that they don’t address today’s homosexual lifestyles. They argue that widespread homosexuality wasn’t around in the days in which the New Testament was written and so these passages don’t really refer to homosexual practice but to pederasty, the sexual possession of an adolescent by an older man of the elite social classes. But these texts DO apply to this issue for archeological studies confirm that the ancient world knew of homosexual desire and practice and that is what Paul had in mind.
And then another text that condemns homosexual practice is of course our text for this morning.
Here Paul describes idolatrous pagans, people who could know God through the created universe but who rejected Him and embraced unnatural sexual acts. Some argue though that what he is criticizing here in verse 26 is not those who are homosexual but those who are heterosexual by their natural inclination and who live out their sexuality in a homosexual way. Therefore, the argument goes, it’s unnatural because they are naturally heterosexual and that they feel is wrong. They also suggest that Paul is really just arguing against promiscuity or against temple prostitution, but these arguments don’t hold water either. Paul’s contention in these verses is rooted in a doctrine of creation…in the reality of the way we have been made, not just in a cultural expression of certain things that were going on in the 1st century. Paul was pointing out, as I said two weeks ago, that God designed sex to function only between one man and one woman who are committed to one another for life. Paul describes a society that has forgotten this because it can no longer discern right from wrong.
So…it is striking to note that EVERY SINGLE TIME homosexual practice is mentioned in the Scriptures, it IS condemned.There ARE only two ways to can get around the biblical teaching against homosexual behavior: by gross misinterpretation or by moving away from a high view of Scripture as the Word of God. I believe then that homosexuality then is not a political issue, or a civil rights issue, or even a tolerance issue. It is a MORAL issue.
Okay, with these assumptions in mind I want to take my scripturally-based convictions and apply them to four of the myths about homosexuality that abound today. And the first one is this:
1. Many people say that Homosexuality is a very normal, comfortable, healthy, and even desirable lifestyle.
And, you know, there IS a small element of truth in this statement because as Hebrews 11:25 says, sin has its pleasures but they are passing…they are brief…they leave people feeling empty.
And as Galatians 6:8 warns, The man who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. Those who practice the homosexual lifestyle have learned this principle first hand for it is a way of life that is anything BUT gay. The truth is that the median age of death for the homosexual male is 38 and for lesbians it is 45. This shorter life span is no doubt due to the following risks associated with homosexual behavior:
- They are more likely to face chronic, potentially fatal liver disease (infection hepatitis) which increases the risk of liver cancer.They put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS, which, in spite of medical breakthroughs still eventually kills everyone infected.Those who practice homosexuality have a high frequency of fatal rectal cancer. They have a much higher than average incidence of suicide-six times as high as that of heterosexual men.Between 25 and 33 percent of homosexual men are alcoholics while the national average is less than 7 percent.
Now, does this sound like a comfortable, healthy, desirable lifestyle? I certainly don’t think so. In fact, as I look at these statistics I remember the warning of Proverbs 14:12 where it says:
There is a way that seems right to man but in the end it leads to death. And then, another myth is that:
2. Homosexuality is very prevalent in our society.
Many people quote the Kinsey report of the 50’s which said that10 percent of our population is lesbian or homosexual. They look at these old stats and say that it is unfair to say that something is wrong when so many people are involved in it. However recent studies have shown that Kinsey’s data was flawed. A new study done by the Battelle Human Research Center in Seattle has found that in actuality only 1 percent of the American population is homosexual. But you know, even if it were prevalent-even if a majority of people practiced a homosexual lifestyle that would not make it right according to Scripture. As the saying goes, If a million people believe a ridiculous thing is true, it is still a ridiculous thing. There is no such thing as majority rule if the majority advocates something that God’s word says is wrong. And as Christians, we must remember this for, Romans 12:2 says that we are …not to conform to the pattern of this world no matter how widespread it is. As Philippians 2:15 says, we are to strive tobecome blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which we shine like stars in the universe. So numbers do not necessarily equal morality. Scripture says what is right-not the majority. And then a third myth is that,
3. …since homosexuality is inherited it excuses homosexual practice…
This is probably the biggest falsehood proclaimed by homosexual activists today for they are saying in essence, This is how I’m made. You can talk about Scripture all day long, but this is who and what I am. This is in my DNA structure. It’s unfair, even cruel, to condemn me for how God made me. I didn’t create this desire: God did. Why should I be condemned for following my natural desires? And this philosophy stems from a 1993 study that appeared in SCIENCE magazine that suggested a link between genetics and homosexuality. But several studies since have shown that this study was flawed. We have no scientific basis to say that homosexuality has a genetic cause.
But, let’s DO acknowledge that many people who pursue a lifestyle of homosexual conduct have a strong tendency toward that behavior. They don’t necessarily CHOOSE to feel this way. Some people SEEM to have a homosexual orientation that can be the result of a variety of psychological factors and personal experiences: Sexual abuse, absentee fathers or mothers, disordered family relationships. Studies show that all of these things can cause an individual to have confusion about his or her sexual roles. I knew a young man embraced this lifestyle because his mother had raised him as a girl. She did this out of her hatred of all men that started when her husband abandoned her. But no matter what the cause, a homosexual orientation is no different than any other kind of tendency somebody can have toward a particular sinful behavior or lifestyle. Some of us have an orientation toward pride, or alcohol abuse, or gambling. Others have a quick temper, or find it very easier than others to gossip about or slander people. All of us in fact have certain aspects of our make-up that shape who we become and make us prone to certain temptations and activities. People who buy into THIS myth treat an orientation as a fundamental element of personal identity. They say I AM A HOMOSEXUAL or I AM A LESBIAN… In other words, they are saying, My sexual inclinations define who I am. But this rational is flawed, for our DESIRES do not define us…our CHOICES do. In Romans 6:16 Paul teaches that our choices either make us a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. By our willful choices in life we either become more Christlike or less Christlike. What we DO, not what we DESIRE, makes us WHO we are.
Also, a desire, an orientation, does not legitimize behavior. Wanting to do something does not make it right. Otherwise we shouldn’t lock people up for wanting to kill or molest or steal. The Bible doesn’t condemn homosexual desire. But like any other desire that is outside of God’s will, it says resist it. Scripture condemns the sins we do because of desire. James 1:14-15 says, We’re all tempted when by our own evil desire we’re dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it give birth to sin and sin, when it is full grown…gives birth to death. We can trust God to give us the strength to resist our evil desires, whatever they may be. I Corinthians 10:13 says, God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
And then, a fourth myth that is out there these days says that:
4. …Homosexuality is immutable…A homosexual cannot change.
The plain scriptural truth though is that anyone can change. I personally have heard the testimonies of many individuals who through their own desire and commitment, the power of the indwelling Christ and the help of family, friends, and counselors, have abandoned the homosexual lifestyle. Sex researchers Masters and Johnson reported in their book Homosexuality in Perspective that in a study of 81 gays desiring reorientation, 71.6 percent had been successful after six years. Another nine-year-study of male homosexuality concluded that Many homosexuals can become exclusively heterosexual in psychoanalytic treatment. They also said, …a heterosexual shift is a possibility for all homosexuals who are strongly motivated to change. Many Christian ministries like Exodus International and Kerusso Ministries are out there, committed to help people who want to change. Some of them have a 90 percent success rate. Now, this doesn’t mean these people will always find the opposite sex attractive. It doesn’t mean they wind up getting married and having kids. It DOES mean they turn away from their desires.
And the Bible talks specifically about this hope. In I Corinthians 6 it says, Don’t fool yourselves. Those who live immoral lives, who were idol worshipers, adulterers, or homosexuals, will have not share in his kingdom…. And then it says, …THERE WAS A TIME WHEN SOME OF YOU WERE JUST LIKE THAT….but now your sins are washed away…You’re set apart for God, and He’s accepted you because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God have done for you. Paul acknowledges here that practicing homosexuals were able to find freedom from the practice and that Christ gave them a fresh start. So, healing-change-is possible. As with any addiction, sexual or otherwise, homosexuality will not just go away because the homosexual wants it to disappear. It requires confession, repentance, healing, and accountability. The way out is not easy. If it were, more would have chosen it. But it IS possible.
In his book Fresh Faith Jim Cymbala shares the story of Steve…a polished, intellectual young man who grew up in the hood of Southeast D. C. In spite of this environmental disadvantage, Steve excelled scholastically and earned a scholarship to a Pennsylvania prep academy. While living there in his mid-teen years, he confessed to a counselor one day that he felt a vague attraction to other boys and didn’t know what to think about that. But, the counselor answered that this was all very natural and was nothing to worry about. Well, Steve’s good grades next brought him a scholarship to the prestigious Ivy League campus of Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. His first actual homosexual experience came as a freshman…not at the invitation of an overly effeminate guy, but rather from a star athlete and a candidate for the U.S. Olympic team.
Steve said, The next morning I felt so hollow, so empty…I had been a reaching out for love but it didn’t satisfy. Without a spiritual anchor in his life, Steve continued to yield to his homosexual desires again and again. By the time he graduated with honors from Dartmouth, he was very experienced in the closet lifestyle of a gay man. Steve showed a talent in the field of dance so in June of 1978 he moved to New York City to accept yet another scholarship at the world-renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Meanwhile, a cousin challenged him to at least read the Bible and he did…it took him a year of systematic study to read from Genesis to Revelation. During this time he was sharing an apartment with four gay men. Steve says, Whenever we would be talking late at night and I’d say something about a Bible portion I had read that opposed homosexuality, they would reply, ‘Oh, don’t worry about that-you’re reading the wrong parts…Read the Psalms, the Proverbs. God is a God of love and anything that’s loving is fine with Him.
Well, Steve went from one liaison to another until finally a relationship solidified with a talented artist. They shared an apartment together…one block from the Brooklyn Tabernacle. On Sundays Steve could not help noticing the crowds on the sidewalk coming in and out of our meetings, and he said to himself that he’d like to visit. When he did, he said, I felt the love of God the minute I came through the door. God’s presence was there in a powerful way. Instinctively I wanted to be there. When I left I was so full of joy. Steve kept coming back, soaking in the Word and the presence of God, all the time feeling more and more convicted of his sin. As he attended a gay pride rally about that time he questioned his lifestyle, saying, Something inside my head asked. ‘Where will I be ten years from now?’ God was steadily chiseling away at my beliefs. Steve began to pray repenting of his sin and asking that God would show him the way out of the lifestyle. He made the commitment to stop all homosexual activity and not too long after that he said he felt free. He ended his relationship with the artist, became a Christian, and became involved in the Tabernacle’s ministry to gays and lesbians. A few years later he met a wonderful Christian woman and they married. They had two children and worked together in the ministry. Steve’s experience and those of others like him proves that homosexuals can change if they want to.
You know, I think most conservative Christians would agree with my convictions…
they would concur that these four statements about homosexuality really ARE myths. We don’t have any trouble hearing our convictions affirmed. But, as I said earlier, we do have difficulty being compassionate toward the homosexual population. Why is that true?
Why is it that so many of us have a hard time loving people who embrace this lifestyle? Well, I think the main reason is that we buy into a myth ourselves. We believe the Bible classifies sin and that this particular sin is listed as being worse than other sins that we ourselves commit. But this is really a misinterpretation of scripture. If there WERE a list of sins from worst to Best-then at the top of the list would be PRIDE or arrogance…the belief that my sin doesn’t move me as far from God’s holiness as YOUR sin does. And this is a GREAT MYTH for, the Bible clearly teaches that ALL of us have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. It states that this world is in its current depraved state because EACH OF US have given in to sinful desires and are therefore totally dependent on the grace of God.
Years ago an article was written in the TIMES OF LONDON entitled, What’s Wrong With the World? The author of the article was grappling with some of the things that make the world a bad place. Well, G. K. Chesterton wrote a letter to the editor following that piece and said, I noted with interest the article that you published yesterday entitled, ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ I felt compelled to write and tell you: I AM. Sincerely, G. K. Chesterton. We — you and I — not just homosexuals — are what is wrong with the world. All of our lives are affected by sin…and all of us are equally in need of God’s redemption. The ground is level at the cross. We are no better than any other sinners and we have to be humble enough to realize this if we are to act compassionately toward homosexuals in the world who like us desperately need to experience the Love of God.
As I have said, in our text for today Paul does speak against homosexuality but he also argues that there is a variety of ways in which God’s good creation has been twisted by our acts and has come under His judgement. Remember the rest of his list of sins? Greed, envy, deceit, malice, gossip, slander… Are any of us innocent of those sins? I think not. No, in the Bible homosexual acts are seen as just one of many profound implications of the broken-ness and sinfulness of all of humanity. So, when confronting homosexuality we must remember that God demonstrated His love for [all of] us in this: While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And we must realize that it is the responsibility of every follower of Christ to love those who are struggling, no matter what their struggle involves. The fact that our neighbor calls himself a homosexual does not represent a holy loophole in Christ’s command that we love one another. So, if you are here today and struggle with homosexual feelings then please hear this: YOU MATTER TO GOD…and YOU MATTER TO ANY GRACE-DRIVEN CHRISTIAN...and that includes me.