Lord of our Sexuality (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Jeff Kliewer)

If you would grab a seat, being together with the brothers and sisters in the Lord is something I look forward to all week long. I want to encourage you with some words out of Deuteronomy today, because we're coming together and anticipating a meeting with the Lord this morning, and now Israel, I'm going to say, and now Cornerstone.

What does the Lord require from you? That's a good thing to ask. But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and love Him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And my encouragement to you this morning is that we're coming before the throne of God, we're coming into fellowship with our heart and with our soul focused on Him. Some few announcements this morning.

Tomorrow is an important meeting. Our congregational meeting is tomorrow at 7 o 'clock right here. If you're a member, please definitely come. And if you're not a member, but you're interested in what our church is doing, please come.

We have some really interesting topics to bring out, and we would like you all to be informed about them. I would also say that on the end of the month, in about a couple of weeks, we're going to be experiencing what's called a Bible journaling workshop.

If you have... Is that... Okay. Hi, Heather. If you have never experienced the blessings of Bible journaling, I obviously encourage reading and meditating. Journaling has a way of making that specific lesson, that specific thought significant to you.

And so Heather's going to be leading us. It will be on a Saturday from 10 .30 to 2 .30. There is a cost. Lunch will be provided. And I believe you sign on at the church app? The church website. So we encourage you for that.

We had our first starting point class. It's a three-week class. This morning, what I want you guys to do next week is more to come so that we don't fit in the room. That would be exciting if we have to get a bigger room.

But come on in. If you want to learn about what we believe, about our church, that's a great place. It's three weeks. We have two more to go. And so if you're interested, just come on out. First service time starting again next Sunday.

And then the end of the month on the 30th, that's a Sunday, we've had an annual men's fellowship that the tradition goes back probably almost 20 years. Guys getting together with guys over the NFC championship game.

I saw a few Eagles jerseys. I think there are some of you who are hoping to be celebrating that day. So please, join with us in fellowship, whether your team's in it or not. It's guys with guys. And it will be Sunday, the 30th, 6 .40 p .m.

That is a strange time to start a fellowship. I guess that's kickoff. And it will be at Michael's house. Does Brenda know? Yes. Okay. Please be aware that we are in full swing with things like prayer meeting tonight, care groups, men's, women's studies are ongoing.

So check on for that. And at this time, I'm going to ask Louise if you would come up.

Missionaries of the Month: Tim and Kathy Sheets and HVMI

Good morning, everyone. Good morning.

Okay. I am here for our missionaries, and our missionary for the month is Tim and Kathy Sheets. And they are the founder and ministry ambassadors of HVMI. Kathy is his happy wife, Tim's happy wife, and HVMI's lead ministry secretary.

They have, there's a lot going on with them. They have six ministries, Twilight Senior Ministries, Rest Ministries, Handicapped Camp Discipleship Ministries, International, and BASES. The Twilight Senior Ministry, the goal of TSM is to be Christ's hand to the elderly, offering God's great gift of salvation, and offering a concrete presence of his compassion.

His Rest Ministry, R-E-S-T, which is restoration, encouragement, and support through truth exists to make God real and to facilitate restoration to people who are hurting, abused, and addicted. The Handicapped, Handy Camp, uses many full-time missionaries in key leadership positions joined by many more summer staff serving as counselors, Bible teachers, service staff, and assistant nurses.

Campers with physical, mental, or multiple disabilities come for camp, come for summer camp where they enjoy many activities. They're not just staying at home being disabled, but through this camp, they can enjoy things.

They also have, as I mentioned, International HVMI is now in Ghana, West Africa, where they have a facility to provide camps with people with sight and hearing impairments, help for foster homes, and a home for women with disabilities who were living on the streets there.

And the Basis Ministry is a ministry to help bereaved parents. Bereaved parents, it was established to encourage hurting parents through the darkest and heaviest days of their grief. So, I have handouts in the back for you, which will give you more detailed information.

But, thank you. Please continue to pray for our missionaries. They are doing an awesome job for the Lord, and we can be a part of that by praying for them. Alright? Thank you. Thank you.

Louise, I want to say thank you. There are a lot of missionaries, and to be able to put a concept with a name, we're going to be trying to get their pictures up so that we can have that visual. But, I also encourage you to come back at 6 o 'clock tonight to our prayer meeting.

When we do the missions moment in the morning, that will be an emphasis of prayer, even tonight in our prayer meeting. So, right now, let's go to prayer. Father, Lord, we come to you with hearts in awe, knowing our unworthiness, but Lord, resting in the love that you have.

Lord, we thank you for the sheets that are working for your kingdom, ministering to so many people who are in need, and bringing their lives to minister to them. Father, here, I pray, Lord, for within our own church, for opportunities, for people to be fellowshipping, discipling, growing spiritually together.

Lord, we pray that we would be seeking you in every aspect of our life. Tomorrow night, Lord, with our congregational meeting, we pray for your wisdom and for your guidance, that as we discuss matters, this is your kingdom, so we surrender to your sovereignty.

And with that, Lord, as we're considering the new board, the new budget, again, we seek your guide. Lord, for many who are hurting, whether they're in physical need for healing or have lost recently loved ones, we pray, Lord.

Now, Lord, as Pastor Jeff is going to bring the message of understanding the biblical definition of genders and some of the world's attack, Lord, we pray that you would speak clearly to him, that we would understand, we would be moved to being your servants.

And Father, I specifically pray for our brothers in Canada, in pulpits who are being attacked and face even imprisonment for speaking the truth about this matter. We pray that you protect them. And we pray now, Lord, for your hand.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The Lordship of Christ in Worship and the Call to Hear His Word

He is Lord of all creation, maker of heaven and earth. He's the one and only God. We stand together and sing. Voice in the dark lights up the star. Gives life, sovereign, that can't compare to you. You are the one alone in greatness.

The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power. The one who reigns forever. Jesus, the one true God. The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power. The one who reigns forever.

Jesus, the one true God. You're the one true God. And we have seen the glory of the one and only Son of God. Yes, we have seen the glory of the one and only Son of God. You are the one alone in greatness.

The one who never changes. Jesus, you are the one who rose in power. The one who reigns forever. Jesus, the one true God. You're the one true God. You're the one true God. Galatians 1 .4 says, Who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

The next song we're going to sing together has a few key statements. The first in the first verse is, Who, O Lord, could save themselves? Which brings us to the beginning, that we cannot save ourselves.

And then in verse two, it says, You, O Lord, have made a way. Going back to John 14 .6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. So essentially, this song allows us to sing our faith and give God thanks and praise for saving us from our shameful ways.

Let's sing together, You Alone Can Rescue. Who could save themselves? They're deeper than the sea can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, let us out of death.

To You alone belongs the highest praise. You alone can save. And You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, let us out of death. To You alone belongs the highest praise.

To You. Let's lift up our voices and our eyes together. We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes.

You're the giver of life. We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes You're the giver of life. And You alone can rescue. You alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, let us out of death.

You alone belongs the highest praise. You alone belongs the highest praise. Lord, we come to you this morning accepting that you have redeemed us from our shameful ways. Lord, we want to come before you with hearts that are just empty without you.

I pray, Lord, that we will come to the point that we want to follow you, we want to serve you, we want to serve your people. You are the refuge that we can run to. You are the fire that leads us through the night.

You stand right beside us. There's so many ways that you bless us, there's so many that we can't even count. Stir our hearts to follow you wherever you lead us. You make it easy to love you. You make it easy to trust you.

You never leave us, all I want, future I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night. I'll follow you anyway. There's a million reasons to trust you, nothing to fear for, you are by my side.

I'll follow you anyway. The revolving around is huge, I run for the fire that leads me through the night. I'll follow you anyway. There's a million reasons to trust you, nothing to fear for, you are by my side.

I'll follow you anyway. I want to follow you. All I want is you, Jesus, all I want is you. All I want is you, Jesus, all I want is you. All I want is you. You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.

I'll follow you anyway. There's a million, nothing to fear for, you are by my side. I'll follow you anyway. Follow you anyway. It's your prayer this morning. Refuge I run to, you are the fire that leads me through the night.

I'll follow you anyway. There's a million reasons to trust you, nothing to fear for, you are by my side. I'll follow you anyway.

Hearing the Parable of the Soils and the Need for Good Soil

Jesus, in Matthew 13, you told a parable of the soil, and we desire, Lord, to be that good soil. You say, take care how you hear. And so, Lord, we pray that we would take care now to hear your word well, to receive what you say, to submit to your authority, for you are God.

We pray that you would use the preaching of your word to change us from the inside out, to make us more pure and holy in your sight, more like Christ. Even at the level of our desires and affections, Lord, change us at the deepest part of who we are.

We also pray, Lord, that you would tear down strongholds through the preaching of your word. Lord, we pray that you would move powerfully to destroy the enemy, to set people free, and even at a cultural level, we pray that you would use preaching to be salt and light in the culture.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This sermon is illegal in Canada. What I'm about to preach this morning would be grounds for arrest and two years in jail in Canada as of January 8, 2022. With the new bill, C4, that was just passed in Canada, which reads this way.

Everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years. Now, that applies to counselors who try to help someone who's struggling with gender dysphoria to recognize how God made them or someone who has the sense that they are gay to become straight.

If a counselor were to work with a person in that area, they go to jail for five years. But the language continues in C4. Everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises this is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.

That applies to pastors who preach the full counsel of God's word in Canada this morning are liable to two years in jail. So there is a pastor of Grace Life Church in Canada whose name is James Coates.

We prayed for him because they've already thrown him in jail once. When the Bible told you to assemble and not neglect the assembling of yourselves together, Hebrews 10 .25, he said, okay, so our church is going to meet.

But the government said you must not meet. And he obeyed God rather than man. And he spent, I think, a couple of months in jail. James Coates was educated at Master Seminary in California with John MacArthur as his pastor.

And so James Coates this week reached out to Pastor John and said, hey, I'm going to preach on sexuality this week because they said it was illegal. And a number of pastors in Canada joined with him. And John MacArthur sent out a charge to all pastors across America and Canada saying every one of you needs to preach on sexuality this week.

They can't throw everybody in jail. Let's test this law at the get-go. Now, notice in New Jersey, it's not illegal. So it's no great bold stand for me to preach on sexuality here this morning. However, there is a bill in New Jersey which passed in 2013, which says that it's prohibited to counsel the change of sexual orientation to a minor.

That's Assembly Bill 3371 in New Jersey. So if you're a family counselor, you're not allowed to work with a minor to help them overcome gender dysphoria or sexual orientation issues. So it is coming to America, even if it hasn't enlarged to the adult population and to the pulpit at this time.

In fact, I just heard between the services that Indiana just introduced the same bill that Canada did, which is surprising. I wouldn't think Indiana. I would have thought California or New Jersey would have initiated that.

But it seems to be in the House in Indiana. This issue of sexuality is a gospel issue. If the Bible cannot tell us ethics, what's morally good, what's right versus what's wrong, it cannot offer a savior for sin.

There's no salvation for sinners who don't know how to repent of sin to turn to the Savior. The gospel call is repentance and faith. And so the Bible must first define what sin is in the first place in order for the sinner to turn from sin to take Christ at his word.

This is a gospel issue. In fact, Martin Luther put a sharper edge on that razor. He was debating the Roman Catholic Church in his day, and he was preaching sola fide, faith alone, no sacraments unto salvation.

You have to preach Christ alone because the Roman papist gospel is a non-gospel. And Martin Luther said, there's many people who will say some things, but they won't speak about this issue. And here's what he said.

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all other battlefields is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point. Martin Luther is saying, you need to fight the battle where it rages.

And in our day, in 2022 in the United States of America, the authority of God's word is being challenged at the point of sexuality. That's where the battle is raging. So to be a faithful pastor, I must speak to this issue today.

If not, it's merely flight and disgrace. Likewise, Christian, to stand for the name that is above every name requires you to speak the truth about these issues, however unpopular you will be. In your classroom, in your workplace, when the subject comes up at the lunch table, you need to stand for the truth of God's word in total, and especially at the points that are under attack.

Let's do that this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 to 11. And the big idea this morning is that the Lord of heaven and earth, the one who hung the stars in the sky, who built everything that is, including humanity, he has the sovereign right to define right and wrong, male and female.

He has the right even over our hearts. And he is the one who can set people free from sexual perversion. So let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 to 11, for the good news of deliverance from sin.

The good news that God has the power to change people. His gospel is good news. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 to 11. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Amen. The Lord of heaven and earth sets the boundaries of right and wrong.

It is fundamentally a prideful, arrogant spirit that thinks that mankind defines what's right and what's wrong. Or this concept that each person has an individual truth which is good for them. This is also arrogance.

Micah 6, 8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? God, as the sovereign over creation, has the right to define right and wrong.

He tells us, he has told you, O man, what is good. And he tells us to do justly, to do justice, what is right. We must learn that category from God himself. He defines what's right and what's wrong. He is sovereign over morality.

So let's begin to speak of sexuality, but not at first with the prohibitions. Let us begin to build a positive case. Many people say, well, listen, homosexuality, transgenderism, lesbianism, these things aren't sin, or Jesus would have spoken to them.

And Jesus never said anything about these things. Therefore, it must be okay. Let's examine that argument in light of the counsel of God. Because the argument from silence of what Jesus didn't say cuts in two directions.

Being the omnipotent, omniscient God of the universe who came in flesh, and knowing that in 2022, most of the world would be for homosexuality, and Christians would be left here with our Bibles. He very well could have spoken about these matters, and clearly affirmed homosexual relationships.

But he did not. Jesus never said anything about homosexuality in a positive light. Nor did he speak to these issues in that way. However, we will learn he did affirm what God always said from the beginning.

And explicitly so. So we need to begin in the beginning with the positive case. We're going to do a brief review of morality. Because this culture needs to hear, and we, to be honest, need to be reminded of these things.

That our Christian ethic would be formed from Scripture. Turn with me to Genesis 1, verse 27. We're going to move quickly. It's in your notes, so don't feel that you have to find every passage. If you'd rather just listen, that's okay.

It says in Genesis 1, 27,. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. The sovereign who made the universe has the right to define the binary of maleness and femaleness.

It is his design. Then in chapter 2, verse 23 and 24,. The man said of the woman,. This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Genesis 2, 24,.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. This is God's invention, God's design, and sexuality is a good thing. This is prior to the fall of man in Genesis 3.

God creates male and female. And not just speaking of Adam and Eve, because they had no mother and father. He says a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. This is a picture of companionship between a male and a female in marriage.

And it is a good picture for enjoyment and companionship and for the command to fill the earth and subdue it. That is, of course, reproduction. This is God's design and it is a good design that he created.

Now, the sexual activity that he designed for man and woman to enjoy within marriage, this then is guarded by prohibitions. Meaning that the God who designed sex for marriage draws boundaries around that gift, lest when people transgress it, it would turn to their detriment rather than to their blessing.

So turn with me to Exodus 20, verse 14. As part of the Ten Commandments, guarding marriage here in Exodus 20, verse 14, the Lord of heaven and earth says, you shall not commit adultery. Adultery, of course, refers to transgressing the marriage covenant.

That husband and wife have entered into a covenant and God, as one of the Ten Commandments, prohibits adultery. Turn then to Leviticus, chapter 18, and God will become much more specific regarding sexual behaviors in Leviticus 18.

Now, we will get to the point, so I want you to mark the thought. Many people will say that Leviticus only applies to Israel. It doesn't apply to us. Therefore, what's prohibited in the law should not be imposed upon the church and New Testament dispensation.

That concept completely falls apart when we look at the actual language of Leviticus 18. Let's do that at first at the beginning of Leviticus 18, then we're going to go back in a few minutes to 1 Corinthians 6 and see why this teaching still applies, okay?

So, notice in Leviticus 18, 1 through 5, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. I titled my message, Lord of Our Sexuality. God is the sovereign who created all things and he has the right to speak to matters of justice, right and wrong, morality, what is good and what is not.

He says in verse 2, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you.

You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. The creator claims authority to define right and wrong. Verse 5, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules.

If a person does them, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. So, notice first of all that there are nations surrounding Israel that do not walk in the ethical standard that God sets for his people. By the end of Leviticus 18, we'll learn that because they don't, he vomits them out of the land.

The Canaanites, the Egyptian, they're vomited out from God. Referenced in 18 .3, by the end of Leviticus 18 verse 27, for the people of the land who were before you did all of these abominations so that the land became unclean.

So, the difference between how Israel was to live and how the nations disobeyed Leviticus 18 indicates that God has a standard that applies to all people because he applies that standard to the nations and vomits them out of the land.

Verse 28, lest the land vomit you out. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be vomited out of anything when you make it unclean. As it vomited out the nations that was before you. So, in Leviticus 18, then, you have specific instructions and boundaries that guard the good gift of sexuality.

In verse 6, and continuing on, there are a number of prohibitions against incest of various kinds. There are prohibitions against bestiality. And then we come to chapter 18, verse 21. And here's the only verse in the chapter that doesn't ostensibly deal with sexuality.

It deals with murder. It says, you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Moloch. And so profane the name of your God, I am the Lord. What's that doing in the middle of Leviticus 18? Why a prohibition against giving children, sacrificing children to a false god?

Could it be that God, in his omnipotence, omniscience, knowing what would come in culture, places this here because abortion is the offering of children to Moloch, and that results from sexual immorality.

The reason that a mother would take her child made in the image of God that she carries and protects within her womb and say, no, I don't want this child is because this child, in almost every case, was conceived in sexual immorality.

So it is a sexual issue that drives the abortion issue in this country. And the parallel drawn is that the killing of a child, an innocent child made in the image of God, comes about because of sexual immorality.

The passage goes on in Leviticus 18, 22. And notice how explicit the language is here. It is because God is clear in his communication. He doesn't deceive people. The deceiver obfuscates language. God, in contrast, speaks very clearly that we would understand.

And he says in verse 22, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. God does not mince his words. He speaks very clearly. In fact, I want you to take note of the language of this text.

Because what he says now is a standard for all time. And I'll show you why. Notice the word male and lie. The Greek translation of this. So the Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Old Testament.

The Greek words for male and lie are arsen koite. Just mark that. We're gonna bring it up in a few minutes. Male is arson. Koite means bed or to lie. God is saying that a male is not to go to the bed, to lie with another male as he would with a woman.

It's very descriptive and it's unmissable what God is saying. But notice the language. Mark it for a few minutes later. Arsen koite. Now, continue on to the New Testament. Those who seek to deceive do not be deceived.

Those who seek to deceive will tell you that Jesus never spoke to the issue of homosexuality. So what was said in the law of God does not apply to the New Testament the way it did to Israel in the Old Covenant, okay?

So turn with me to Matthew 5, verse 17. There are a number of things that Jesus never explicitly spoke about. Like bestiality and incest. And all manner of sexual perversion. Naming those things the way Leviticus 18 does.

But if you read Matthew 5, 17, he clearly affirms the morality of Leviticus 18 as being determinative for all time. Here's what he says. Matthew 5, 17. From Jesus himself. As all of the word is from Jesus himself.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Let me read that again. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So Jesus very clearly draws a distinction between abolishing the law and fulfilling the law. Meaning there are things within the law of God. That which was given to Moses.

And the book of Leviticus would be examples. Which are fulfilled in Christ. Ceremonies like the festivals. The offering of sacrifices, animals. The Sabbath. These things are fulfilled in Christ. Meaning that there were animal sacrifices prescribed by God to be offered day after day in the temple.

And the Passover lamb killed every year until Christ himself came. And his body as the lamb of God dies the death that we deserve. A sacrifice once and for all. Showing that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

In his death on the tree, he once and for all becomes the sacrifice that all of that pointed to. Notice that this is fulfillment of the sacrificial system. He didn't abolish the sacrifices. He fulfilled them.

All of those sacrifices pointed to him and he finished what he came to do. You see the distinction? The same is true with the Sabbath. He becomes our rest. Ceremonies, the festivals. He is the fulfillment of those things.

So these ceremonial and dietary laws are fulfilled in him in Christ. But here's the question that we face. Does that imply then that morality is shifty? Is it like a shifting shadow? Is morality only what a culture determines to be good and bad?

And of course Jesus affirms very strongly, do not think that I came to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it. What is moral? What is good? Flows from the character of God. The 10 commandments are not abolished in the work of Christ.

Morality itself is fixed in the universe and cannot be changed. It is always wrong to steal, to commit adultery, to lie, to bear false witness, to take the Lord's name in vain. We wouldn't say that any of these things have changed because morality is based and flows from the character of God.

Amen? So there's the distinction that we need to make. Jesus affirms the law. And continue on to Matthew 19 verses 3 to 6. Jesus also cites the Old Testament quoting from a passage we already read. Questioned about divorce, Jesus answers this way, verses 4 to 6 of Matthew 19.

Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? The gender binary, that God makes people male and female. Psalm 139, he knits us together in our mother's womb.

Jesus affirms such things. And said, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. The positive teaching on what marriage is, a union between a man and a woman.

By definition, these are things that Jesus explicitly affirms. And then being the author of all scripture, he goes on to speak directly in the New Testament prohibiting homosexual behavior. Turn with me to Romans chapter 1 verses 26 and 27.

Romans 1 26 and 27. In the context, the wrath of God is revealed against all mankind because mankind exchanges the truth of God for a lie. Worshiping and serving created things instead of the creator who is forever praised.

He gives an example of this exchange of God's natural and good creation for something that's man-made and man-centered. He says in Romans 1 26 and 27, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. So this of course speaks of lesbianism. And then in verse 27, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So the New Testament teaching is clear in holding up what God also said in the Old Testament. So let's go back now to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and we'll remain here now for the remainder of the sermon.

You really need to see a few things in 1 Corinthians 6 9 to 11. The first thing we've covered and that is that a vice list. When God tells us what a vice is and lists those things, indicates that God is sovereign over morality.

He has the right to tell us what's right and wrong. So he gives a list of things and notice it's not all sexual. It's not all targeted to the LGBTQ. It applies to all people in various categories. The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers.

All of these are moral wrongs. That God condemns. The first two within the sexual category are sexual immorality and adultery. Sexual immorality, the word there is pornoi from where we get pornography.

It refers to all manner of sexual immorality. Anything that is not in keeping with God's design. The second word is moikoi, that's adultery. But moving now into the second point. God has the right to define maleness and femaleness.

I want to show you something in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 that's very important and that all of you need to remember because this will become a topic of conversation in your schools and as you defend the Bible.

1 Peter 3, 15 says, always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. The point at which that hope is under attack is the area of sexuality and a few other areas like race and economics. But you need to be able to turn to 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and explain the meaning of that text.

So let's read this, this phrase. Nor men who practice homosexuality. Those who reject the authority of God's word will often masquerade as deceivers do. As teachers of God's word. And they will tell you that this does not refer to consensual sex between committed loving men.

They say it refers to some manner of abuse and they borrow from the Roman culture to say that there were practices of sexual domination in that society to which this refers. But committed homosexual marriage would be completely out of view with regard to this text.