Clear Thinking About Homosexuality (part 1) - [Romans 1]

I'm going to read something now, and I'd like you to guess from what am I reading and when was it written.

Dearly beloved friends, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony, which is an honorable state instituted of God in paradise in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt

Christ and His church, which holy state Christ adorned and beautified with His presence and first miracle that He wrought in Cana of Galilee, and is commended of St.

Paul to be honorable among all men, and therefore is not to be enterprised nor taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men's carnal lusts and appetites like brute beasts that have no understanding, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God, duly considering the causes for which matrimony was ordained.

One was the procreation of children to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the

Lord and praise of God. Secondly, it was ordained for a remedy against sin and to avoid fornication, that such persons as have not the gift of contancy might marry and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body.

Thirdly, for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity, into which holiest state these two persons present come now to be joined.

Therefore, if any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak our else hereafter forever hold his peace.

Then to the couple the pastor says, I require and charge you as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of the hearts of all will be disclosed, that if either of you do know any impediment why ye may not lawfully be joined together in matrimony, that ye confess it.

For be ye well assured that so many as be coupled together otherwise than God's word does allow are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you.

The Lord mercifully with His favor look upon you and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace that you may so live together in this life that in the world to come you may have everlasting life.

Amen. Does it sound modern?

Does it sound ancient? Does it sound archaic?

Does it strike you as intolerant? Does it seem judgmental?

What did I read from? Any guesses? I read from the section entitled the

Solomonization of Matrimony in the book of what? Common Prayer.

When was it written? 1900s? 1800s? 1700s?

You're getting warmer. 1600s? 1559?

The book of Common Prayer. I think it's dated but it's not out of date.

The world would think it would be irrelevant. The world would think it would be archaic, nonsensical.

The question for this morning is there's a document that's even older and if people think the book of Common Prayer has dated language, irrelevant language, language that is for another group of people in another land in a far off country, then how much more do people in the world think the

Bible written a thousand, two thousand, three years later depending on the section is in fact then dated.

But this morning I want to remind you that the Bible is relevant because God is relevant.

The Bible is in because God is in. The Bible is eternally true because God is eternally true.

Christians are struggling with what do we do with and how do we respond to homosexual marriage, gay marriage.

And if you were asked the question why should I stand against gay marriage,

I wonder what you would say. Now you might say something like we're going to have to revise now every state's family law in light of what happened earlier this year,

Supreme Court decision. You might say we should stand against gay marriage because we're going to have to close

Christian adoption agencies and some have already closed. We should stand against it because eventually they're going to take away our freedoms.

They're going to tax us. They're going to put people in jail. Maybe you'll say, well, if we don't do something, we're going to just have to cater to homosexual couples when it comes to businesses.

God might judge the nation if he's not judging it already. I think there's some validity in each and every one of those.

But what's the main reason we as Christians, as followers of Christ Jesus, stand up and say gay marriage isn't biblical and isn't right?

And if you'll turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5, we're going to find out the answer. And the answer is that gay marriage attacks the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Every other reason for us being concerned about gay marriage and thinking this is the issue all pale in comparison to the fact that when you talk about marriage, it preaches the gospel.

Therefore, if you distort marriage, if you pervert marriage, if you twist marriage between a man and a woman, then it toys with, it minimizes, it destroys the gospel.

What I want to try to convey to you today is this. The reason why

I, and therefore you, are against homosexual marriage is because we are for the gospel.

There's a tie -in between marriage and the gospel. And so, some have said to me, not here at this church, but other places, you know, why are you making a big deal about this whole gay marriage thing?

Aren't there other sins? Well, of course there are other sins. But in our home, if there's an intruder breaking in at the basement door,

I don't go to the front window and just look out and see the fall colors. I'm addressing that situation.

And when we're attacked, we have to respond. We have to think rightly. Like it or not, the media affects us.

Advertising affects us. Our hearts are still not glorified yet.

And we can deceive ourselves. And we can have friends. We can have workmates. We can have children who are homosexual.

And sometimes we then read the Bible through the lens of our love for our neighbors and our family and our friends.

And then we distort the Scripture. So this morning, I want to address, and next week as well, look at Ephesians chapter 5 and see the tie -in between marriage and the gospel.

And therefore, you can see why it's so urgent. And by the way, I'll tell you up front so you'll know where we're going.

Friends, this is a great way to preach the gospel to people. Because instead of saying, you know, we are not for homosexual marriage, we are against homosexual marriage, gay marriage.

And let me tell you why. And then we're going to easily lead in to the free grace found in Christ Jesus, the bridegroom, as he loves his bride.

And so we say no to gay marriage because we say yes to the gospel. We need to have a biblical view from Ephesians 5 about the eternal arrangement,

Christ loving the bride. And if you redefine marriage, you redefine the gospel.

Now, I love to go to weddings. I actually love to go to weddings more than I like to officiate them because if you officiate weddings, you're probably going to make some kind of mistake, and I usually do.

And it's the big day for the couple, and who wants to make those mistakes? But when you think of marriage, you ought to think to yourself symbolism.

What are some of the symbols you'll find in a wedding ceremony before we get in to the text today?

Well, the groom enters first, and the bride comes to him. Why? Because he's the covenant initiator.

That's the symbolism there. The man initiates the covenant of marriage. You have one side of the family sits here, and the bride's family sits there on one side.

The groom's family sits on the other, and the bride comes down in between the families, and after they're married, the couple walks between families, cutting the covenant.

I have comments to make about sacrificial animals split in half and slain animals having a couple walk through them, and so you can't call the family members slain animals.

We don't want to do that, but the families make sacrifices for the couple. We can rescue it that way. White runners sometimes we have.

This is holy ground, God's institution of marriage. Parents get special seating because we're to honor our father and mother.

Father walks the bride down the aisle. I, the father, endorse this man as the best choice for my daughter.

The groom makes the vows first, as he is the leader and covenant initiator. The ring, circular in shape.

Without end, the covenant relationship till death do us part. Sometimes they light unity candles.

We are now one, oftentimes a veil, white gown, purity, modesty.

Seal the contract covenant with a kiss. We don't do this anymore.

Throw rice, be fruitful. Throw rice, be fruitful. I don't know where we got that.

And those are good, and those are right, but if you miss the main symbol in a wedding, you've missed it all, and that is it is a picture of Jesus loving his bride.

Ephesians 5 .25 says, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

This passage in Ephesians chapter 5 will help us think rightly in a modern day

Sodom. I didn't think it really could get any worse. When I was in Israel just several months ago, we drove past where Sodom would be, and our tour guide said, they now are actually having homosexual weddings in the city where it used to be

Sodom. In your face, God. And then we have our court decision here in our own country.

I want to think rightly, and I want to make sure we understand properly, on one hand so we don't become apathetic, and on the other hand so we don't become vain, popping, fundamentalist, angry at homosexuals and not thinking about them rightly as Christ would.

Let me read the passage again. Ephesians 5 .25, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

This whole section here talks about Christ and the church.

If you go back to verse 23 of chapter 5, For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its

Savior. At the very end of this section, verse 32, this mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Marriage is a mini -reflection that shows how Christ loved his bride, the elect, the church.

One of the things I love to do in premarital counseling, I've shared this with you in the past, is

I love to say to the groom -to -be in front of the bride -to -be,

Tell me four reasons why you picked your spouse. And if it was an arranged marriage,

I guess we could say, Why did your family pick this spouse? See how

I include everyone? Isn't that nice? And it's cute because in front of his bride -to -be, he has to say reasons out loud to me why he loved and find his wife attractive.

And I've heard everything. First, here's what they try to do, especially if they're younger. They know I'm a pastor, so they want to have to say some godly things.

She's regenerate. The Greek is born again from above. And of course,

I want them to have a Christian bride. That's true. And then sometimes they'll say, She's got a wonderful sense of humor.

She's pretty. She's witty. She loves children. She loves her parents.

One person said she's obedient to her mother. That's one of the reasons. Romantic.

In New England, of course, I get this one. She's wicked intelligent.

That's a quote. I have received this one before. This is as romantic as you get.

Ready? She's a five -point Calvinist. It's true.

I didn't say it. They said it. Yet, when we go to this text in Ephesians, and we'll do some exposition in it, you're going to quickly realize that while it's right for a family in an arranged marriage to pick because of admirable qualities and beautiful qualities, that's just the way

God has designed us. When Christ loves a bride, He loves in spite of, not because of.

In other words, if you look at Romans chapter 5, Christ died for us when we were ungodly, sinners, enemies, and helpless.

There was nothing in us that was lovable, yet He has great love for the bride.

He demonstrates that. He makes it conspicuous by His great love that He loves the unlovable.

And you're going to see that in here. Why did Jesus die for sinners? Not because we were lovely.

The focus here is on the love of Jesus Christ for His people.

Sacrificial love. Special love. A love that says, I love you, the bride, alone.

So if I say to you, congregation, I love you, and then I look at my daughters, I love ye, and then

I look at my wife, Kim, I love you. All three are true, but they're different.

There's a separate, unique, intimate kind of love that is reserved for Mrs.

Abendroth alone. I owe you a dollar. True story. She just winked at me.

Let's close in prayer. This is great. Let's get to the marriage class. God loves with a general love, with a love of common grace, with a love of rain for unregenerate, unelect.

And then there's a redemptive love for the bride alone. A special love. The love that says,

I lay down my life for you. I die on your behalf. I suffer the wrath of God in your place.

I assuage God's wrath and placate it. And now, because of the Father's love and my love for you, you are a pure bride, a holy bride, a redeemed bride.

Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus and other churches, and he's got this master plan. Here's the setting of the table before we look at Ephesians 5 closely.

Here's the table set. God has a plan, a grand, unique, global, universal plan.

Go back to chapter 1, please. It's been 7, 8 years since we've been in Ephesians, so it's a good reminder.

It's hard to know what's in chapter 5 if you don't know what's in chapters 1 to 4. And I love talking about it because it extols the triune

God. Everything is about Him. I don't have a lot of to -do lists to give you today.

I just want you to think rightly and to use your mind to love God. When you look at chapter 1, you'll see the language that is also represented in other chapters of God has a plan.

Verse 4 of chapter 1, He chose us. 5,

He predestined us according to the purpose of His will. Verse 9, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which

He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. Verse 11, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Throughout Ephesians and front -loaded in chapter 1, God has a plan. He's sovereign and He has designed everything in the entire world.

And as Scott said earlier, I like what he said, every speck God is sovereign over. So how does

He work that plan out? And Paul's answer is in Christ. Take a look at chapter 1 again.

Verse 1, in Christ Jesus. Chapter 1, verse 3, in Christ He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Verse 4, chose us in Him. At the end of verse 6, in the

Beloved. The beginning of verse 7, in Him. The end of verse 9, in Christ.

Verse 11, in Him. Verse 12, in Christ. Verse 13, in Him.

Verse 13 ends with believed in Him. And while Paul loves justification, there's no doubt about it.

He emphasizes here in Ephesians more than justification, union with Christ.

So God has a plan and God works out that plan in and through the person of Christ Jesus.

And why does He do it? God has a plan, He works through Christ, but why? Verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace.

Verse 12, to the praise of His glory. And verse 14, to the praise of His glory.

If you understand this concept, you'll get all of Ephesians. God has a plan.

He works out that plan in and through Christ Jesus. He does it to the praise of His glory. Here's an example, chapter 2.

How can Jews and Gentiles come together in one body? God had a plan for that.

He worked it out through Christ Jesus and it's to God's praise. How can Jew and Gentile praise

Jesus together? It was planned through Christ to the praise of His glory. Paul, he just as soon killed

Christians as anything else. And if he hated Jews who followed Christ Jesus, what about Gentiles?

And yet God had a plan for Paul. He worked that plan out through Christ, think Damascus Road, and He did it to the praise of His glory.

That's chapter 3. Now we come to marriage and we come to life here. Think about it. In the eternal decrees of God, God had a plan for everything including marriage.

And how does He work out the scope of marriage and the details of marriage? He works it out through Christ Jesus.

And what's the result? God gets praise. Paul cannot stop talking about how great

Jesus is and what Jesus does after he brings up the subject of His Savior and Lord.

If you look at verse 26 and following, Paul gives the goal of Christ's sacrificial love that was described earlier in chapter 5 verse 25 that we read.

Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. So now

Paul describes the goal, the purpose.

For you Greek students, there's three hynna clauses there. Paul is just waxing eloquently, directed by the

Spirit of God, to speak well of Christ and what He does for His bride. What does he do first found in verse 26?

That He might sanctify her. That He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the

Word. Here's one of the goals of Christ dying for the church that she set apart positionally.

This is not sanctification growing in maturity. This is sanctification initially set apart.

You're for me, you're only for me, you're wholly for me, W -H. I'm marking you off for me.

The aim of Christ's atonement as far as the church is concerned is to make her wholly a people after His own possession, to be purified.

This is the language of positional sanctification or setting apart. This is language of Hebrews 10, 14.

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

It's the language of Hebrews 13. Therefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood suffered outside the gate.

And He did this, take a look at the text, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the

Word. Catharsis is a word we would get from this

Greek word. And it means to heal. And it is especially used of healing diseases.

It is especially used of healing leprosy. And so sinners have spiritual leprosy, if you will, and Jesus dies for them.

And one of the purposes is to set them apart as a holy bride, cleansed, pure.

It has nothing to do with washing of the Word through baptism, whether it's sprinkling or dunking.

It's a metaphor for cleansing. Similar to Titus chapter 3 and similar to 1

Corinthians chapter 6. You were washed. But Christ's love has another goal found in verse 27.

Jesus dies on the cross for the bride. He does it for a reason. He wants her to be sanctified.

And there's also going to be the ultimate presentation found in verse 27. Isn't this neat?

That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The church is presented no wrinkles, no spots. I read one commentary said she doesn't need makeup.

Sorry, ladies. And normally the friend of the groom would present the bride in those days.

He would hand over the bride. But here Christ doesn't have any intermediary. He introduces the bride to the bridegroom, and He actually is the bridegroom.

One man said Christ is his own matchmaker, and He presents the bride to Himself in all her glory.

The church glory is full of honor, splendor, beauty, shining. And you do see a reflection of this in a modern wedding, don't you?

Because even in the Greek, this word glory can be used of the bride's beautiful wedding dress, radiant wedding dress.

You can imagine the bride begins to walk down the aisle in the American wedding, and everybody stands up and turns, and you see the bride in that dress, and everybody says what under their breath or maybe out loud.

Well, if you're maybe in Pittsburgh, you respond. But if you're in New England, you just don't say anything. By the way,

I returned from Pittsburgh. It was just a one -night deal. I'm not a sealer or anything. I spoke well of the patriots there.

They all said Brady's a liar and all that kind of stuff. And I said, you've got to be kidding me. Would you consider yourself a good person?

Here is the radiance and the glory of God. And if God's going to redeem a people and set them apart and purify them, they are going to be holy, glorious, gorgeously appareled.

It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 11, so to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

No blemishes, no spots, nothing moral, immoral that needs to be removed.

And he goes on in verse 27 to give another goal, the final goal of Christ's redemptive love at Calvary for his bride, that she, mark that because it's going to be important for our discussion when it comes to homosexual marriage, that she should be holy, blameless, holy and blameless.

That is language from Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. He chose us before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him.

The war against the gospel has many fronts and the latest one is through homosexual marriage.

Now as dopey as it is when people say God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, it is right to think that God the

Son didn't marry himself. It is right to think that the bride of Christ didn't marry herself.

And the language here is very clear, him and her. And the language of this passage has to form your ideas of marriage as God reveals it in Scripture.

John Gershner quotes, This passage suggests not merely that God uses marriage as an excellent illustration of the union between Christ and the church.

More than that, it suggested that God created marriage institution especially to be an illustration of the

Christian mystery. In other words, we do not first have marriage, then its adaptation as an illustration of the mystical union between Christ and believers.

This is eternity past. God has thought of marriage because this is ordained in eternity past and you've got the

Father and the Son and the Spirit agreeing and the Son goes to rescue the bride in this eternal pact of redemption, the covenant of redemption to go rescue.

It's already thought of and now on earth we have marriage to point us back there. It wasn't an afterthought as Gershner said,

Well, you know, let's have marriage. And by the way, we do have marriage on earth and that's existed first and therefore we could probably talk about the

Gospel because of marriage. No, it's exactly the other way around. If we did a word association game and I were to say to you, you know, up and you say down and back and forth we go and if I were to say to you, marriage, in light of Ephesians 5, what should you say?

What's the first thing that should come out of your mouth when we play the association game, when we think about a topic and without revelation we would never do it.

Left to ourselves, we wouldn't. That's why we need to be people of the Word of God. When I say marriage, you should automatically say to yourself,

Atonement. Atonement because that's what Ephesians 5 is teaching.

Sometimes when you quote people and you're preaching, you quote them because they either say it better than you do or you give extra authority because then the congregation realizes their pastor isn't out on a limb believing it by themselves.

So, for both of those reasons, I quote Martyn Lloyd -Jones. How many of us have realized that we are always to think of the married state in terms of the doctrine of the

Atonement? Is that our customary way of thinking about marriage? Where do we find that in the books that talk about marriage?

We don't really think through this very well. I know I don't unless I bind myself to Scripture.

If you study Greek language, Greek culture, Roman culture, Greco -Roman era, try as you might, it is almost impossible for you to find an exhortation of a husband to love a wife.

Yet here, it's revolutionary. You have Christ's love for the church. Everything about this passage is self -sacrificial love.

Chapter 5, verse 25, love, love. Verse 28, love, love, love. Verse 33, love.

Irrespective of merit, Christ's love is the initiating.

You see those two key English words there in verse 25, just as.

How does a husband love a wife? What's the model of his love? What's the ground of his love? Right there.

It's the work of Christ. Just as the Messiah loved. The husband needs to put it into his brain,

I do, that our marriage is a living picture of Jesus Christ and the way I treat my wife is a living picture of Christ, how he loves the bride.

My marriage preaches. Your marriage preaches. And that husband -wife relationship, friends, it's obliterated in gay marriage.

When I first got here in 1997, I filled out the forms in Massachusetts for the officiating of marriage.

I would say to my kids when they were little, daddy has to go to work, he's got to marry somebody today.

I'm like, aren't you already married to mama? Okay, I am officiating the marriage ceremony.

And so I would fill it out and it would say husband, wife, and I would fill it out.

Then how many years ago was it? 2005 was it? 2004?

I have to officiate weddings now and it just says, I can't remember anymore because I've forgotten the details.

Basically, subject one, subject two, person one, person two, partner one, partner two.

If you look back at chapter 5, verse 25, he loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Even the word church, if you had to guess masculine, feminine, or neuter, what would you guess?

The word church is feminine, ecclesia. Elsewhere in the

Scripture, Christ died for us. Paul can say in Galatians chapter 2, he died for me.

And here it's very clear, he died for her. Jesus, self -sacrificial love, giving himself for the well -being of his bride.

Unlike Greco -Roman culture where the wives had obligations to the husbands and it stopped there.

Here it's the opposite. Everything is different. The parallelism between Christ and the husband is patently clear with those two words, just as.

Just as Jesus loves and gives. By the way, so you understand the import of sacrificial love for the bride, when the text talks about gave himself, that's the language of the

New Testament for, I'm giving myself over for suffering, judgment, and death. Romans 4, he was delivered over.

Romans 8, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all.

I've said this before and I think it's important to repeat. Wives, let me just address you for a second.

What kind of husband would you like? Would you like a husband that says, when you do something for me,

I will respond. If you don't do anything toward me, I won't respond in kind.

Just live and let live. Well, that's an

Arminian husband. It's true. Cooperation, synergism.

Wouldn't you like to have a husband that's the initiator, the leader, the lover, the one that initiates everything?

I said five point Calvinist earlier today, so I might as well say it and get it out of my system for the next year. You want a Calvinistic husband, even if you're a

Wesleyan. What do I mean by that? You want a husband that initiates and loves and lays down his life and doesn't say, well, if you do this, then

I do that. Because you know deep down, this is the best kind of love.

This is Christ -like love. He's the initiator. It's monergistic. He is the one that seeks and saves those who are lost.

That's why He came to earth to do that. And it's all obliterated when there's two heads, two brides, two grooms.

James Boyce, never make the mistake of dragging your understanding of the love of God in Christ down to the level of your own weak love.

Rather, let God draw up your love by the love and power of Christ to His standard. If, in fact, marriage is a true picture and vivid illustration of the gospel of Christ Jesus, then wrong thinking about marriage will denigrate the gospel.

So in light of that, I ask some questions. Question one. Question one.

Specifically when it comes to gay marriage, homosexual marriages.

Question one in light of Ephesians 5 .25. Where are the no men and the no women?

Where are the no men and the no women? In order to say, yes,

I'm for the gospel, the good news that Christ Jesus saves sinners. By the way, that's the most important thing in all the

Bible, isn't it? Didn't Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus' sacrificial death, confirmed by the burial, shown by the exalted resurrection, is the most important thing?

I deliver to you that of first what? Importance. Well, no wonder Satan is attacking the thing that's the most important thing.

If this is the most important thing, if I stand up and say yes to this, guess what I have to say no to?

Gay marriage. If I'm for one, I'm automatically against the other. And I'm going to talk about this in depth next week.

I'm not saying that we need to be yelling and screaming and unkind and we're the next group of picketers and we're going to be awful neighbors to our homosexual friends.

I did not say that. That would be sinful and ungodly. But today

I am saying, if you're for the gospel, you're against gay marriage.

Because it's related. We're not against gay marriage for all these other reasons primarily, but it hurts the gospel and its view.

If you haven't listened to MacArthur's We Will Not Bow sermon, you ought to. I mean, we live in a day and age that if you say no to something, you're criticized.

I was in the airport yesterday and I thought, you know what? People cannot say no. You've got these little kids.

And I wanted to be the... You know, sometimes when I walk into an airport, I think, I'm the pastor of the airport. You know, there's a little prayer meditation room there.

Could I help you? And I just have to restrain myself. I can do better now just because I'm old and tired.

That's why grandpas are so nice. They're just tired. Whatever. And I thought, you need to say no to your kid.

Of course, you can say yes to other things. We can't say no to our kids. How can we say no to anything else?

Michael Horton compiles pastoral requirements. If you need to hire a new pastor, what do you look for?

True. He found on some of the Internet sites that you're to look for a new pastor who has the gift of administration.

He's good at recruiting. He knows how to design and implement music programs.

He's a dynamic and catalytic leader. He has relevant preaching.

He's authentic. He can relate well to affluent fast track commuters.

Here's one, true story. Music degree required. Theological degree preferred.

Another one, I kid you not. Seminary degree unnecessary. Business background preferred. Change initiator.

Pastor coach. Able to lead worship through drama, audiovisual technology, banners and dance.

Can you imagine? At the top of the list, what do you look for? Of course, 1

Timothy chapter 3. You look men who can preach the word in season and out of season. They reprove, they rebuke, they exhort with great patience and doctrine.

But second on that list better be this. Men who are in the pulpit who are going to go, you know what, over my dead body.

You can jail me. You can fine me. You can do whatever you want. But it is for the gospel sake. And therefore,

I will stand. God help me. And before you say amen too fast, once the elders and leaders of the church are in jail, you're next.

I mean, think of some of the men in the Bible who were jealous with God's jealousy. And they were protecting their own honor, their own glory?

No. Like with Phineas. He was after the Lord's glory. I could put it this way. Men, what does it say if your bride, your physical bride is attacked, sullied, spit on, denigrated, accused of impurity, and you do nothing?

Silence, as one man said, is yellow. It's not gold.

Where are the leaders? Where are the congregants? And I'm preaching to the choir.

I know this. I know you're ready to stand and are standing. But even with Paul, he writes to the church at Galatia.

And this is how the Greek starts. Paulos. Apostolos.

And now I'll give you the English word. Not. And the whole tone of Galatians is set up in such a way where Peter, you're going to teach the wrong thing?

No. You're going to add something to the gospel? I don't care if you're an angel. No. You're going to try to somehow get saved by grace and you're going to get sanctified by just law work?

No. I'm not going to do it. No, no, no, no. Where are the people who are going to say no today? Machen.

That word no or not, we're constantly being told today, ought to be put out of the Christian's vocabulary. Our preaching, we're told, ought to be positive and negative.

If he lived today, he'd say, it's got to be like Caleb. We have to present the truth. We have to not to attack error.

We have to avoid controversy and always seek peace. With regard to such a program,

Machen said, it may be said at least that if we hold to it, we might as well close up our

New Testaments. For the New Testament is a controversial book almost from beginning to end. Even the hymn to Christian love in the 13th chapter of 1

Corinthians is an integral part of the great controversial passage with regard to the false use of spiritual gifts.

That glorious hymn never would have been written if Paul had been adverse to controversy and if he had sought peace at any price.

But the same thing is true also of the words of Jesus. They too, I think we can say it reverently, are full of controversy.

So friends, here's what I'm after today. I'm after you to say, and I think everyone here would,

I can't stand for gay marriage. I can't believe gay marriage. I can't attend a gay marriage.

I love you. I would say to my lesbian friends, I love you and I think our family has shown love to you.

You've shown love to us. But you disagree with me, lesbian friend, that I think

Jesus is the only way. I think he was literally raised from the dead. I think he's coming back. And you don't agree with that.

And friend, I can't agree with this. It hurts the Gospel. It hurts what I believe. I'm not asking you to be mean to your lesbian friends.

I'm asking you to say, when you say no to gay marriage, then you say, but let me tell you about free grace found in Christ Jesus.

I remember one time my car was broken down and my lesbian friend, our lesbian friend, said, would you like to borrow our car?

And I said, not the Subaru or the Prius, but the BMW, I'd like to.

I said, that'd be great. And so here's the funny thing about the whole deal. Drove here and worked and I walked out to the car.

You know, sometimes I'm just dumb and stupid and sinful and that's how I get myself in trouble with you and others.

But sometimes you're just the pastor and you just get whacked for no particular reason and just live with it. I thought, well, now people have ammunition.

Because I walked out to my car with the equal sign on the back. Pastor's got a new car.

Rainbow. Love makes a family. Because you disagree with homosexuals, you're not homophobic.

Homophobic means some irrational fear of homosexuals. I'm not. I know you're not.

When you read the Bible, 22 books out of 27 in the

New Testament talk about false teaching. Because where the truth and the light of the gospel go out, there's going to be attack.

Maybe adding works to the gospel. Maybe adding some sacraments or this, that or the other.

But when it says, you know, you will bow down to believe in homosexual marriage or else.

You just say, friend, the or else can come and find its way. But here's why I love the gospel and this is why

I must stand and defend. This is my reason for saying no. I'm not going to bow.

I love reading biographies of Christian men and women. I hope you read biographies of Christian men and women.

And you read about Adoniram Judson and he leaves from Salem, Massachusetts. And he goes and preaches the gospel in Burma.

I love to read about Mary Slessor, Scottish lady. She goes to Africa and rescues 51 sets of twins that were set out to just die because the locals thought they were demon possessed.

And every single one of those people, including some of our favorite folks in the

Bible. They were men and women who said yes to the gospel and no to something like sin, unrighteousness.

I don't think you understand Galatians if you don't understand the word no. But for what reason?

My second question, I don't even know when I started. When did I start today? No idea.

Doesn't matter. We're just going to keep going. Question two.

Have you bought the lie that you're to be known for what you're for only and not what you're against? It's directly related to number one.

Churches now have slogans. I wonder if you had to say the slogan of Bethlehem Bible Church is what?

You had to describe our mission statement, our purpose statement. Some people have mission statements like we're known for what we're for.

Some people have mission statements like our church is all about love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbors yourself.

Well, the second one, I want to ask them how are you doing because it's just all law.

Here's more things to do, although there are wonderful things to do. The first one, you're only known for four things.

What if we can just say I can correct that error and this error by saying it is our desire at Bethlehem Bible Church that we remember and we proclaim to others that in history the second person of the

Trinity, the eternal son of God, came into earth, came onto earth through Mary.

He had a real body. He was a, although fully

God, he was fully human and he lived on earth always pleasing the Father, always under the law, doing the right thing.

And then for not his own sins but for our sins, he died on Calvary and was raised from the dead.

And that can satisfy the justice and holiness of God so that you can live and have forgiveness.

Because God just doesn't have love and holiness and righteous standards. He has love for people.

Hosea, how about this, the greatest verse maybe in all the Bible in the Old Testament about love. Hosea, I, God says,

I've loved you freely. My own choice, my own free will, my own discriminating love,

I just love you. I love you because I'm a loving God. And we're here to tell people that through repentance and faith they can have their sins forgiven.

That's what we're about. But by saying that, that means we are against anything that says

Jesus isn't fully God. We're against anything that says it really wasn't a virgin birth.

We're against anything that says, you know, Jesus, maybe he said some false things but, you know, it's just all smoothed out.

We're against anything that says it is not finished at Calvary, something else needs to be done.

We're against anything that says, no, when you say Jesus isn't going to come back, it's just a pipe dream with Peter and his mind and the disciples.

We're against that. Once you're for something, you're against something. So if you're for the gospel, you're against anything that denigrates it.

I'm against sin, aren't you? I'm against Satan, aren't you? I'm against worldliness, aren't you? I'm against deceit in my own heart, aren't you?

I'm against the dishonor of Jesus. I am positive in my younger years that I like to fight theologically too much.

These days when I meet people, I try to turn conversations to the gospel. I think back in the old days, and you said maybe,

Mike, it wasn't that long ago. You have a short memory. I used to try to turn anything into some theological banter.

I sat next to someone yesterday, and I could tell he was from the East. It was just a short flight from Pittsburgh.

I said, where are you from? He said, I'm from Pittsburgh. But I meant where you're really from, because I know you're from India, and I want to talk about it.

He said, well, I'm from Chennai. I said, oh, that's wonderful. We began to talk back and forth. I said, what

I love about India is I can just talk to people when I'm there, and I can say, well, what gods do you worship? And they just tell me.

In America, you know, what gods do you worship, and they don't want to talk about it. And so we began to talk, and I was trying everything

I could to turn that conversation to the gospel. Yet, although controversy is never pleasant, the writer of Jude calls you, calls me, the church, to contend, true or false, earnestly for the faith.

The answer is yes. And so when we are attacked, we have to stand up.

You can do it in a nice way. We just finished Malachi, didn't we? And Malachi, the priest in those days, would not stand up against unbiblical divorce and unbiblical marriage.

And God says to Malachi, the society is the way it is because you won't stand up. I know it's theocracy, but that's what happened.

Walt Kaiser talks about a cartoon in Leadership magazine.

In the old days, there actually was good articles in Leadership magazine, Christian magazine for Christian leaders, but now it's pretty much populated by cartoons.

And it showed a pastor in front of the church, and he had a full panoply of knight's armor on him.

And he lifted up the hatch of his mouth, over his mouth, and here's what he said. He said, my subject today is divorce.

And Leadership magazine said, see, that's the intimidation that the pastor is under. That now doesn't, you know, that's a mood issue these days.

It's what about gay marriage? The culture is crazy over gay marriage. And you're going to think you're crazy if you don't submit to Scripture as you deal with this.

So here's what we're going to do. Next week, we're going to look at our strategy in terms of how Jesus loves sinners, how we should love sinners.

But I want you to know, for my last repetition, if you are against gay marriage, it's because you're for the gospel.

And when you talk about why I'm against gay marriage, please talk about sovereign free grace in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for today. I thank you that when we come to your word, you just change us, living, active, doing its purpose.

Thank you for that. Father, we want to love our neighbors. We want to love our enemies.

But, Father, may we be ever rescued from sentimentalized, syrupy love that says we celebrate what you do, when you never celebrate any sin, whether it's heterosexual or homosexual.

Father, give us opportunities in the days to come, as we have freedom to do so, and even when we don't, to tell people, let me tell you about God's love.

Ever look at a marriage? Ever see an 85 -year -old man and woman hobbling down the aisle, holding hands?

That reminds me of Jesus Christ and his bride. What an excellent flicker.

What an excellent lightning bolt of, yes, that's marriage. A man loves a woman, just as Christ loves the church.

We are thankful that you loved us in Christ Jesus. We're thankful we don't have to pay for our sins.

We're thankful that you have given us your Son's righteousness. And we're thankful that your

Son has even dealt with our self -righteousness. So we want to run from it even all the more. May we not be self -righteous.

May we not be unrighteous. But may we be trusting in your Son's righteousness, given freely on our behalf, because of his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

Father, I pray for those of us who have gay friends and workers, co -workers, maybe kids, that you would give us kind hearts, wise hearts, as we want to talk about Christ Jesus.

Protect us from anger and frustration and things that would be only caricatures of a real

Christian. We want to be, and we'll learn next week, like Christ, who loved to have celebrations with and feast with and eat with sinners, as he then called them to repentance.