Touchy Topics: Homosexuality

[0:00] This morning's scripture readings are taken from two passages.! Genesis 1, 26-28.

[0:16] Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over livestock, and over all the earth.

[0:52] So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.

[1:04] Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

[1:30] Romans 1, beginning at 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.

[1:47] For the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

[1:59] As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

[2:18] Because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen.

[2:32] Being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power and Godhead. So that they are without excuse.

[2:45] Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. Nor were thankful. But became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[3:00] Professing to be wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man.

[3:13] And birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts.

[3:26] To dishonor their bodies among themselves. Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie. And worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.

[3:39] Who is blessed forevermore. Amen. For the men. God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

[3:57] Likewise, also the men. Leaving the natural use of the woman. Burned in their lust. One. No. Burned for their lust.

[4:07] Sorry. For one another. Men with men. Committing what is shameful. And receiving in themselves the penalty of their error.

[4:19] Which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave them over to a debased mind.

[4:31] To do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Sexual immorality. Wickedness. Covetousness.

[4:42] Maliciousness. Full of envy. Murder. Strife. Deceit. Evil-mindlessness. They are whisperers.

[4:54] Backbiters. Haters of God. Violent. Proud. Boasters. Inventors of evil things.

[5:05] Disobedient to parents. Undiscerning. Untrustworthy. Unloving. Unforgiving. Unmerciful. Who. Knowing the righteous judgment of God.

[5:17] And those who practice such things. Are deserving of death. Not only do the same. But also approve of those. Who practice them.

[5:31] Thank you very much, Faye. Thank you very much, Faye. Thank you. Thank you very much, Faye. Thank you very much. No doubt. Most of you would recall that when we started this sermon series a few weeks ago.

[5:44] I made the point that we will be covering these topics not from a cultural point of view, but from a biblical point of view.

[5:56] And I mentioned that this morning because this topic is especially one that we are going to consider from a biblical perspective and not a cultural one.

[6:14] This topic of homosexuality. And so I begin with the question, what does the Bible have to say about homosexuality?

[6:26] And better still, what is the Bible's approach to addressing homosexuality? And the second question is an important question because what we will find is that the Bible does not address homosexuality in isolation from other sins.

[6:48] What we find in the Bible is the Bible addresses homosexuality together with other sins. And so please keep your Bibles open to Romans chapter one.

[7:03] We're concluding this sermon series this morning, and I mentioned that we'll have a time at the end for questions and answers.

[7:14] We're going to dismiss as we normally do. So if you need to run off, feel free to do that. But then we're going to have a time for questions and answers. So those who want to remain behind for that, you're free to do that.

[7:26] Let me pray for us before we begin. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we have your word that you have written down and preserved over many generations.

[7:46] And we ask, oh Lord, that as we open it, you would open our hearts and you would speak to our hearts. Father, we ask that we would all posture our hearts in this moment to hear from you.

[8:05] And I pray, Lord, that above my voice, you also be heard. And I pray that you would use the preaching of your word this morning for the good of your people and ultimately for the glory of your great name.

[8:26] And we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we delve into the text this morning, I think it would be helpful to take a couple of minutes and put it into its context.

[8:40] When we examine this letter of the Apostle Paul, what we see is that Paul begins this letter with what might be considered an introduction in verses 1 to 15.

[8:54] And then, starting in verse 16, he starts the body of the letter, the real content that he was directing to the church at Rome.

[9:10] He begins the body of the letter in verse 16, and in verses 16 and 17, he declares that the gospel, the good news of God, that comes to undeserving sinners, is God's power to save.

[9:28] It's God's power to save all who believe. Whether they are Jews or religious people who were given the law, or whether they are Gentiles, people who were not given the law and left to themselves.

[9:42] And Paul also says that in this gospel, God's righteousness is revealed. And it's a righteousness that is based on faith.

[9:56] And then, starting in verse 18, through to verse 20 of chapter 3, what Paul does is Paul makes a case that both the Jews and the Gentiles are under the just wrath of God.

[10:17] In chapter 2, he, well, in verses 18 to 32, which we're covering this morning, he addresses Gentiles. And then in chapter 2, he addresses the Jews.

[10:29] And then in chapter 3, from verse 1 to 20, he does a summary, and he concludes that all of them together are rebellious, and there's none of them that is righteous, not even one.

[10:42] That's what Paul does. And I share this because we need to appreciate that we are covering only a part of his argument this morning, but he has a bigger argument for a bigger reason.

[10:55] And the reason is Paul is seeking to show that all people, no matter who they are, no matter where they are, are under the just judgment and wrath of God, and the only solution to that is the gospel of God.

[11:14] That is what the Apostle Paul does in this first section of the book of Romans from verse 16 up to verse 20 of chapter 3.

[11:25] And then he comes right back in verse 21 of chapter 3. He comes back to this message of the righteousness of God that he starts laying out in verses 16 and 17.

[11:43] And so this morning, we are considering the first part of the case that Paul makes against the Gentiles who didn't have the law unlike the Jews who had the law.

[11:57] So with that context, let's now consider verses 18 to 32. And in our remaining time, I want to consider these verses moving through them rather quickly with three points.

[12:15] At least the first two I will move through rather quickly with three points under three particular headings. The first one is God's revelation. Paul tells us that God revealed himself in creation.

[12:31] Look again at how he says this in verses 18 to 20. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[12:48] For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse.

[13:14] God's revelation of himself that the Apostle Paul refers to here in these verses is what theologians call his general revelation.

[13:24] It's a revelation that God has generally shown to all people in creation. So all those whom God created, God has revealed himself in creation in a very plain way, the Apostle Paul tells us.

[13:45] And the reason it is plain is because he tells us in verse 19, God has shown it to them. God has put it on display. And he tells us that there are two particular ways that God has done this.

[13:57] In verse 20, he tells us that. He highlights two aspects of God's attributes or God's character. His eternal power and his divine nature.

[14:09] His eternal power, his power that is unlimited, unbridled, without end, without beginning, without end. and his divine nature.

[14:24] What God has done is there are aspects of the creation that God has etched into it these aspects of his attributes that otherwise can't be seen.

[14:39] His eternal power and his divine nature, reminding us that we are the creatures and he is the creator. He is divine in nature. He is life within himself, unlike his creatures.

[14:56] That's what God did. And this is what the psalmist sings about in Psalm 19 in the first six verses. And one of the aspects of God's creation that the psalmist sings about is the sun and how the sun is seen everywhere from all people.

[15:15] the sun with all of its power. And there is a display of God in all of that that God has given to all people. The psalmist tells us that there is not one place on the earth where the voice of God in creation isn't heard.

[15:36] So Paul's point is that no one, therefore, can be without excuse to say, I had no knowledge of God. Paul says in verse 20, they are without excuse.

[15:51] But something happened. And what happened is man rebelled against God's revelation of himself in creation. Man rebelled against God himself, which brings me to my second point, man's rebellion.

[16:10] rebellion. And how did man rebel against God? Well, first in verse 18, Paul tells us that they rebelled through the suppression of the truth about God through their unrighteousness.

[16:28] And then he goes on in verses 21 to 23, and he spells out this rebellion in more clear words. Look again at how he says man rebelled in verses 21 to 23.

[16:46] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[17:00] Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

[17:16] Notice what Paul is saying in these verses. They knew God, but they didn't honor him as God, didn't give thanks to him as God. They became futile in their thinking, meaning they engaged in worthless thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[17:37] Claiming to be wise, they became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, what God created, the creator creating man, and they make an image and worship that, the creator creating birds and animals and reptiles.

[18:00] over which he gave them dominion. And they make images of those things and worship them instead of worshiping the creator who created them.

[18:13] And we don't need an imagination to think about this. I think most of us have some awareness of cultures around the world and we know these things to be true.

[18:24] People created to worship God have turned away from God and are now worshiping what God created and indeed what God gave them dominion over.

[18:37] And this is what this refusal to retain a knowledge of God and a suppressing of the truth will actually lead to.

[18:50] Paul tells us that man in his rebellion, verse 25, exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed over all.

[19:15] Now here's important to remember that man's rebellion against God is rooted in wanting to be wise, wanting to be like God and this goes back to Adam and Eve in the garden and it points us to the fall.

[19:33] They wanted to be wise, they wanted to be like God, they believed a lie that the devil spun over the truth of God's word that he had given to them and they disobeyed God by eating of the tree that he forbade them to eat of, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[19:56] And when they did so, they fell into sin and Adam's sin, he was the representative of the human race and as our representative, he plunged the whole world into sin and into rebellion against God.

[20:11] another expression of man's rebellion against God is that they lusted after, they passionately desired that which God forbade, that which God did not ordain for them.

[20:32] And this will be seen in verse 24. Notice in verse 24, it says that God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts. Now, I'm going to come to this more directly in the third and final point.

[20:47] But what I want us to see here is that when it says that God gave them up or God gave them over to the lusts in their hearts, he gave them up in the lusts of their hearts, the lusts were there.

[21:03] God gave them up to them. It's important to see this because what it means is that in their hearts, they were lusting after, longing after what God forbade.

[21:18] They were trying to, in their hearts, wanting to break out of the boundaries that God had established in their lusts and passions and says God gave them up in those lusts and passions.

[21:31] But the important thing to see is that the rebellion against God was the lusts and the passion in and of itself before God even gave them up to it.

[21:44] These lusts and passions, desiring what should not be desired, these were of their own sinful doing.

[21:56] These lusts and passions were rebellion against God because God had set boundaries and they were lusting and desiring to break through those boundaries.

[22:08] And that is the expression of rebellion against God. Again, I'll come back to verse 24. We see another expression of fallen man, fallen man's rebellion in verse 28.

[22:25] They didn't see it fit to acknowledge God. Now, all of this rebellion against God can be described with one word, and that word is ungodliness.

[22:44] It is rejection of God. It is a refusal to acknowledge and honor God as God. It is a refusal to believe the truth about God, which is a repressing of the truth.

[23:00] It is an exchanging of the truth for a lie. And ungodliness is idolatry. Ungodliness is idolatry because we don't refuse to acknowledge God and honor God in a vacuum.

[23:21] we refuse to acknowledge God and honor God for something else, whether that is humanism or whether it's an object, whatever it is, a rejection of God because he has made us to worship, because he has made us as creatures to worship.

[23:42] We don't worship him, we worship something else. And so this ungodliness is a turning away from God. this rebellion against God is ungodliness, it is a turning away from God.

[23:56] Ungodliness will always manifest itself in idolatry. And naturally, ungodliness, this refusal to acknowledge God, this refusal to acknowledge God and honor him as God will lead to unrighteousness.

[24:20] It is a natural progression. As a matter of fact, it is no accident. If you look at verse 18, Paul says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

[24:32] And I think it's sequential, it is in that order. The ungodliness leads to the unrighteousness. And the same way that the ungodliness is manifested in idolatry, unrighteousness will manifest itself in immorality.

[24:58] It is removal of boundaries, it is a free-for-all, it is a moral, do-it-yourself scheme. When we refuse to acknowledge God in ungodliness, it will lead us to unrighteousness, it will lead us to establish our own righteousness, whatever that is, and do as we please.

[25:24] And unrighteousness begins with sinful thoughts and passions, and they will manifest in immoral conduct.

[25:36] Every single sin that we know didn't just begin as an outward sin, it began in the heart, and in the heart a rebellion against God, leading us to idolatry, leading us to immorality.

[26:01] So man's rebellion against God is seen in ungodliness and unrighteousness, and this results in the wrath of God, which brings me to my third and final point, where we'll spend the remainder of our time.

[26:18] God's wrath, Paul opens this section in verse 18 by saying, the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[26:45] Wrath is a word that we use regularly and although we have ideas of what it means, sometimes we aren't exactly sure what it means, so I think it's helpful for us to think about it and get an appreciation for what it means, especially in the context of this passage they were considering this morning.

[27:12] And I want to offer to us a definition from John Murray, how he defines God's wrath.

[27:22] This is what he says, wrath is the holy revulsion of God. Sorry, wrath is the holy revulsion of God's being against that which is contradiction, that which is the contradiction of his holiness.

[27:44] Wrath is the holy revulsion of God's being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.

[27:56] I think it's helpful just to take a moment and think about that, to reflect on that. God's wrath is not like our wrath. Our wrath, you can be sure, almost always is sinful.

[28:12] It's tinged with sin. Even when we may be showing wrath against something that we should be angry about, we just don't have the ability to have a perfectly righteous anger because we're not perfect righteous people.

[28:26] In and of ourselves, we're not. We don't have the ability to exhibit perfect, holy wrath. Only God can do that.

[28:39] God's wrath is an expression of his perfection, an expression of his holiness. But it's backed up by God's whole being, which includes his unlimited power.

[28:57] sin. And so, when we come face to face with God's wrath, there is nothing more dreadful than to be in such a position.

[29:18] Especially as it relates to what we may call high-handed sin. Sin that flies in the face of God. To remember that this God is perfectly holy, and this God has unlimited power.

[29:32] And this God cannot but be wrathful against sin and sinners. You know, there are few things in the parent-child relationship that will stir up the anger of a parent more than the disrespect of a child.

[29:52] a few things. Because when a child disrespects a parent, it is a flying in the face of the parent.

[30:05] It is doing something. There are many things that we can do that our children can do that we object to. But that one thing of getting into the face of a parent in a disrespectful way that, more than anything else, stirs up the wrath of a parent.

[30:28] Paul is addressing the disobedience, the arrogance of sinners created by God and put into a gracious and a generous world filled with his gifts.

[30:50] And then they find themselves in rebellion against him. And God's wrath is provoked because of it.

[31:03] Paul tells us in verse 18 that the wrath of God is being revealed. Not was revealed, is being revealed. This is in an ongoing way. It is being revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[31:24] This means that God's wrath is being revealed from heaven, will be revealed from heaven, until the day that he returns and finally pours out his wrath upon sin and upon the ungodly.

[31:42] Now, it's important to follow the argument that Paul makes in this passage. In verses 18 to 23, he lays out the reasons for God's wrath, why God's wrath is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

[32:04] And then, in verse 24, he shows us the manifestation of God's wrath, what God's wrath actually looks like.

[32:17] And how did God manifest his wrath? It says, he gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

[32:34] That's what God did. That's a manifestation of his wrath. He gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

[32:48] And why? Look at verse 25. Because they exchanged the truth above God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

[33:03] Amen. In verse 24, this is what an expression of God's wrath looks like because of ungodliness.

[33:23] There's something I want us to see as we look at this section. Two things are happening. If you look, you'll see three times as repeated. They exchanged and then God gave them over.

[33:38] They exchanged, God gave them over. Look at verse 23. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

[33:53] Verse 24, therefore God gave them up. Verse 25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

[34:09] Amen. Verse 26, for this reason God gave them up. Still in verse 26, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

[34:21] Verse 28, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. What is important to see is that God's wrath was poured out and manifested in the form of giving them over to their desires.

[34:51] It's important to see that. that is the wrath of God, that is the judgment of God, but gave them over to those desires. In verse 24, Paul uses this word impurity.

[35:08] Some translations translate it uncleanness. And it's a word that the apostle Paul uses repeatedly in his letters, and it always refers to abnormal or deviant sexual conduct.

[35:22] sexual It is a word that's used to refer to sexual rebellion or sexual anarchy, a breaking of the boundaries that God has set in human sexuality.

[35:37] And for those who want to make a note of those other places where Paul would use the same word, they are in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 21, Galatians 5, verse 19, Ephesians 5, verse 3, Colossians 3, and 5, and 1 Thessalonians 4, and verse 7.

[36:01] So when God revealed his wrath, it was in the form of his judgment, his judgment against those who refused to retain a knowledge of him, and those who persisted in passions and lusts in their hearts.

[36:25] God's judgment was to give them up to commit what they were lusting to do in their hearts. Lusting to break through the boundaries that God has given concerning sexual relations in the context of marriage between a man and a woman, and God gave them over to sexual anarchy to do as they please with their bodies.

[36:50] Notice in verses 26 and 27, the Apostle Paul is even more explicit when he explains what God did in his judgment. Look again at how he says it.

[37:02] And again, what is the root of all of this?

[37:31] a refusal to honor God, a refusal to obey him as God. And brothers and sisters, to reject God is to reject restraint.

[37:46] To reject God is to reject the design that God has given to us in order that we as human beings may flourish, that we might live out the call that God has given to us as men and as women, made in his image and likeness under his authority, managing the earth and multiplying by having children.

[38:14] So what Paul tells us is that homosexual conduct is God's wrathful judgment God was and God was in mercy restraining these passions,!

[38:35] He in mercy restraining these passions, preventing them from breaking through boundaries that he had set. But in their persistence, what we're told is God then gave them over to fulfill that which they were lusting after.

[38:56] And so when we consider homosexual conduct, it is both a sinful practice, but it is also God's judgment because he removed the restraint to give them over to practice that which they were passionately lusting after to fulfill.

[39:19] God gives them up to do what ought not to be done. In verse 27, Paul says that this is the due penalty for their error.

[39:32] So again, homosexual conduct is two things. First, it is sexual immorality, but second, it is also an expression of God's wrath. And we must keep both in mind.

[39:49] when we see homosexual conduct or when we hear about homosexual conduct, yes, it is sin, but we should also be reminded this is the result of God's judgment to turn people over to do what ought not to be done because they lusted and they pressed against the boundaries.

[40:10] And God in judgment removed the restraint and allowed them to fulfill these acts of things that ought not to be done.

[40:24] God judged those passions that they persisted in having in their hearts. He removed his restraining grace and gave them over to do such things.

[40:42] Now, I should have done this a little earlier, but I want to take a moment to define two words that I think would be helpful for us to make sure that we all understand exactly what it is we're talking about.

[41:05] The first word is homosexual. We use it a lot, but oftentimes don't know exactly what we mean by that word. It simply means same sex.

[41:18] It's a compound word. It comes from two words. The Greek word homo, homos, sorry, homos. We get homo from that word, and it means same.

[41:32] And then the Latin word sexus, for which we get sex, and we use sex to refer to biological men and women, male and female. Also, it's used for intercourse as well.

[41:46] And so those are the two words that make up homosexual. Simply means same sex. And so when we talk about homosexuality, we're explicitly speaking about same-sex sexual activity.

[42:02] homosexuality. And what we see from Scripture is that homosexual conduct is sin. Homosexual conduct is sexual abnormalcy.

[42:14] It is sexual deviancy. The Bible says it is sexual uncleanness. And both homosexual immorality, well, homosexuality is both sexual immorality, and it is also an expression of God's judgment.

[42:30] The second word is heterosexual. Again, a compound word. The first word, the Greek, we get this word hetero from heteros, the Greek word, and it means different or other.

[42:49] And then you come back to the same Latin word sexes, where we get sex from, and so it means other sex or different sex. And so when we talk about heterosexual relationships, and homosexual relationships, we're talking about opposites.

[43:05] Heterosexual is male and female. It is different sex. It is other. And homosexual relationships is same sex, male and male and female and female.

[43:17] male and male and female. I think this morning, brothers and sisters, what is important for us to see is why homosexual conduct is the most extreme form of sexual rebellion, of sexual anarchy, of sexual deviancy that we have.

[43:48] It is the most extreme form of sexual rebellion. And the reason is that homosexuality, at its core, is a rebellion against the foundation of human civilization as God has created it.

[44:09] So in the first scripture that we read this morning in Genesis 1, 26 to 28, we see that God made man and woman in his image, in his likeness, and he gave them dominion over all of the created order, and he told them you're to be fruitful and you're to multiply, you're to flourish.

[44:30] And the only way that this multiplication takes place is that it would happen through the sexual union between a man and a woman in the context of marriage.

[44:42] That's God's original design. And we know that it wasn't for multiple wives. If it were for multiple wives, God would have given Adam multiple wives.

[44:52] But God demonstrated his good design by giving Adam one wife. And that was the design. And so homosexual conduct is a flying in the face of God.

[45:08] it is saying to God, your design is not the right design. I want a different design. And it undermines the very foundation of what God has laid out for human civilization.

[45:24] His good design, his good gift of marriage, and all for human flourishing. And we rebel against that to our own hurt.

[45:35] God. And so it doesn't take long for us to see that in our generation, men and women continue to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

[45:46] one of the ways that we see this happening is how homosexual conduct, which is sin, which is the expression of rebellion against God, which is in itself an expression of the judgment of God against those who refuse to retain the knowledge of God in their minds.

[46:15] That conduct by our world is referred to as gay, as a gay lifestyle. I think that those of us who are old enough to remember when the word gay meant happy, it didn't mean anything other than that.

[46:32] And that word has now been taken and attached to a lifestyle that is not God's design, it's not a natural lifestyle, it is an unnatural lifestyle.

[46:47] It is a lifestyle that is rooted in unbridled lusts and passions going against what God has designed. And the world tells us, that's happy, that's gay.

[47:04] And clearly from the witness of scripture and from our own experiences and our own awareness, what we know is such a lifestyle is anything but happy. It is a lifestyle of bondage to deviant sexual immorality.

[47:24] It's very easy to think that the focus of this passage is the homosexual conduct that Paul says God poured out his wrath against in the form of giving people over to those desires.

[47:46] But Paul doesn't end by talking about God's judgment on men and women who were given up to live out their unbridled lusts.

[47:57] He doesn't stop there. Paul's argument against the Gentiles concludes in verses 28 to 32.

[48:09] Look again at how he concludes it. He writes, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

[48:25] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

[48:38] They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

[48:53] Though they know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

[49:07] Notice that in verse 29, Paul speaks in past tense, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness and evil and covetousness and malice.

[49:20] And then he speaks in present tense. They are full of envy and murder, and he goes down and makes a long list. We don't need to take in the breath of all that Paul lists here because he's not trying to be exhaustive.

[49:38] But here's what I think we should consider. it's so easy before we came to these verses to think, well, you know, I have no homosexual thoughts, I've never been engaged in homosexuality, and so we could kind of check out.

[49:55] Well, Paul now invites us to check in because he's telling us that God's wrath is not only poured out against that particular conduct. conduct. He tells us that there's a long list of conduct that God's wrath is being revealed against.

[50:17] And if you don't even find yourself in this list, I doubt that there will be any of us who would say, I don't see anything in this list that I've ever done. Well, I would only say to you, Paul is not seeking to give an exhaustive list.

[50:30] He's just telling us that all manner of sin is subject to the wrath of God. I'm pretty sure this morning that of the three topics that we have addressed, the one that probably has stirred up more questions than the others is this one.

[50:59] I also know that it's a topic that is sensitive, it's a topic that's even personal, and perhaps some of the questions that you might have, you're not comfortable asking them, not even to send them in anonymously.

[51:20] I just want to say, if you have questions about any aspect of this, and this was never intended to be a wholesale treatment of this particular topic, but to take the clearest portion of scripture that we have concerning homosexuality and to address it, since the intent was not to answer every single question as well, if you have questions, I encourage you to reach out.

[51:45] Reach out privately. I would be happy to take the time and answer your questions as best as I can. But I want to close by making three statements.

[51:59] And the first statement is this. There is a difference between feeling attracted to persons of the same sex and engaging in homosexual conduct.

[52:14] Those are two very different things. feelings. Feeling an attraction to persons of the same sex is a temptation. Temptation is temptation.

[52:29] Sin is sin. Feeling an attraction to someone of the same sex must be handled in the same way that we handle any other temptation. A man who's married and is lusting after a woman or even feeling attracted towards a woman who is not his wife, that must be resisted by the grace of God.

[52:49] And the same is true if a person feels an attraction towards those of the same sex. By the grace of God, you belong to Christ and that must therefore be resisted by the grace of God provides.

[53:04] And it's important to know that distinction because one of the lies that the devil and even some in society would give us is that, well, if you feel that attraction, well, then that's sin and you must be in some way corrupted and that is nothing further, there's nothing further from the truth.

[53:24] There's a difference between temptation to do something and the actual doing of that thing, which is sin. And then second, our identity is not in our feelings.

[53:43] Our identity is not in our feelings. And so, an attraction towards those of the same sex, that's not our identity.

[53:58] If we belong to Christ, our identity is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the identity that we must embrace. We must not embrace and say, well, I have these feelings, so I must be a homosexual.

[54:11] You've taken on an identity that denies the identity that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, if we are in Christ, we are a new creation.

[54:23] We belong to him. We're God's children. And therefore, we are not defined. by how we feel. We're defined by what God has done in Christ on the cross.

[54:38] And then third and finally, our identity is not our past. You may have come out of a homosexual lifestyle.

[54:54] You have repented, you've trusted Christ, and that is your new identity, that you are in Christ. Your new identity is Christian. Your new identity is belonging to Christ, child of God, washed in his blood.

[55:10] We read it this morning as we were preparing for communion. Such were some of you, not are you, such were some of you. Now you've been washed, you've been cleansed, you're justified by the Spirit of God.

[55:25] And so our past is our past. Christ, and we should not identify with it, and we should not let anyone else identify us with it. We tell them, you go to the waters of baptism and find that person that you're talking about.

[55:39] That person was buried with Christ. I'm a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, brothers and sisters, I want to end where I started this morning.

[55:54] I started in verses 16 and 17. The apostle Paul says the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, and he tells us in verses 16 and 17, but God's grace is being revealed in the gospel.

[56:20] gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. It is God's power to save. Jew, Gentile, matter is not who you are, matter is not what you have done, the power of God is able to save and transform.

[56:38] And wherever we find ourselves, whatever sins may pop out to us this morning, the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

[56:50] to save and to transform the lives of broken men and women like you and me.

[57:03] Only God can do that. No amount of willpower, no amount of self-discipline, only God can change the hearts and lives of rebellious sinners who are under his wrath.

[57:18] And he does that through the good news of the gospel. But he sent his son into the world to live a perfect life.

[57:29] All these sins that are cataloged here, he committed none of them. And he perfectly fulfilled God's law for every single person who will trust in him, even though we ourselves fail.

[57:45] sin. But more than that, he then went to the cross to pay the price for every single failure, every single sin.

[57:59] Sins in our past, sins in our present, sins in our future. Jesus paid it all. He paid the penalty for it so that a holy God can receive sinners like you and me.

[58:17] And he doesn't hold our sins against us because he placed them on his son and gives us his son's righteousness and he reconciles us to him.

[58:30] If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ, I say to you, come to Jesus. Jesus, come to Jesus and what you will find is a Savior who is quick to pardon all of your sin, whatever it is.

[58:46] However long it has defined you, he will set you free and he will forgive you of all your sins.

[59:00] And so this morning, whoever you are, whatever you've done, come to Jesus. And trust him to save you by the power of the gospel that he holds out to anyone who would believe.

[59:18] Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful this morning for your word. Thank you for bringing us to this place.

[59:29] Lord, we ask that you will continue to speak to our hearts this morning or do it all for your glory, for our good.

[59:45] We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, I'll go and get started. So I really just received three questions. Well, multiple questions, but three entries that came in.

[60:01] The first question, is this. There are mixed views on whether marrying a divorced woman is committing adultery.

[60:15] What does the Bible say about this, and how should we be guided as Christians when it comes to divorce? Okay, Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, and this is what he says.

[60:41] Starting in verse 31, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, commits, makes or commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

[61:09] So the first response to the question as it is written is that the Bible does not categorically prohibit a divorced woman from marrying or obviously someone marrying that person.

[61:26] It's not a blanket prohibition to say once you've been divorced as a woman, you cannot be remarried. The context that we should take it from is what Jesus says here.

[61:37] The first thing he says is that he gives a ground for divorce. It is what we may call the exception clause.

[61:48] So Jesus says, I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality. So clearly if a woman is divorced on the ground of sexual immorality, and really this works both ways because let's say you have a marriage and a wife has been unfaithful or the husband has been unfaithful, and the one who is sinned against ends the marriage, there's a divorce that takes place, both are free.

[62:22] Because if you say that one party is not free, the other party can't be free. Now there are some people who take a view almost as if, and this is an extra biblical teaching, it's not a biblical teaching, there's a view that if you have gone through a divorce and you were the fault, you're the person at fault, that the punishment for you is that you cannot remarry.

[62:48] That is not a biblical teaching. You cannot find that anywhere in the pages of Scripture. Because if the spouse who divorced is free to marry and married to somebody else, what puts that person who's been divorced, even if they were the ones who sinned, in a category to say, well, you can't remarry?

[63:07] They're free. If one is free, then they are both free. But let's take the other side of what Jesus says, and let's say that the exception is not the case.

[63:19] This person just said, look, I don't want to be married anymore. I'm out of here. And they go ahead and they get married. But what Jesus does is he doesn't deal with it in a unisex way.

[63:31] He deals with it in a very specific way, and he talks about a woman. And I think when we take this in the context that Jesus was addressing, Jesus was addressing Pharisees who were abusive to their wives.

[63:46] And so he uses this case of the men giving the divorce. So he says, so I say to you, everyone who divorces his wife, he's speaking to the men, speaking to Pharisees, you divorce your wife except on the ground of sexual immorality.

[64:05] Notice the next thing he says, makes her commit adultery. adultery. Now, is Jesus saying that if a man divorces his wife, by divorcing her, he makes her commit adultery?

[64:19] Literally can't be saying that because divorce in and of itself is not tantamount to adultery. But I think what Jesus is pointing to is the reality of women in those days.

[64:30] Marriage was part of survival, and there's almost a given that a woman who was divorced was going to find herself in the company of a man.

[64:40] Remember the woman at the well that Jesus met? Jesus said to you, you've had five husbands, and the one you're with, he's not your husband. So this woman has moved from one relationship into another into another, and it speaks to the cultural reality at that time that marriage was largely for women a means of support and care.

[65:02] And so it seems to me that the implication here is that she would get married, and what Jesus says is whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

[65:17] Now, clearly he's addressing a situation where a marriage has ended for non-biblical reasons or unbiblical reasons. And clearly when a marriage has ended for unbiblical reasons, the persons in that situation, they're not at liberty to go and enter into another marriage.

[65:39] But here's the reality. We know that people do. We know that people who find themselves divorced for unbiblical reasons, they do get married.

[65:52] And so what is the response to that? What is the answer to that? Is that sin of remarriage forgivable? And if our doctrine will work for us, if God's word will work for us, the answer to that must be yes.

[66:12] Because if that unbiblical remarriage is an unpardonable sin, then we have two unpardonable sins then.

[66:25] Blasting against the Holy Spirit and marrying after you've had an unbiblical divorce. And so the only proper response to that question about what happens when a person gets an unbiblical divorce and remarries is that in repentance that sin can be forgiven as any other sin.

[66:54] Now, there are some who teach this, and I used to believe this. I used to believe in perpetual, being in perpetual sin, being in perpetual adultery. When you were in a marriage that ended for less than biblical reasons, non-biblical reasons, and you go ahead and you remarry, that the remarriage, because it was adulterous, that that adultery was perpetual, that it continued.

[67:21] And as I just thought through the broader teachings of Scripture, I realized that that cannot be true, because if this person who is in that situation comes to the Lord in repentance and seeks forgiveness, he's going to forgive them.

[67:38] Notice something else that Jesus points out in this passage, and it's important to see it. Jesus doesn't say they attempt to marry. He said they marry. He is accepting and recognizing that they got into a marriage.

[67:54] And therefore, the solution to that is not, well, you need to divorce that person who you wrongly married, and I don't know, do what else, force the other person to take you back or marry or something.

[68:05] I'm not sure where that goes. But this is complicated and is a reminder to us that sin complicates our lives. When we step out of God's boundaries, our lives become very, very complicated.

[68:19] So my best understanding of this is that Jesus does give an exception, which is adultery, that a marriage can end and a new marriage can be entered into without any difficulty at all.

[68:38] However, when that marriage ends for unbiblical reasons, for sinful reasons, and that person remarries, if they come to the Lord in repentance, seeking forgiveness, his forgiveness will not be withheld from them.

[68:57] Now, the Apostle Paul later in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 adds to this exception the abandonment that might take place in marriage.

[69:08] So you have one spouse who abandons the other spouse. Paul says the spouse who was abandoned is not bound in such a case.

[69:21] Anything needed further on that before I move on to the next question? Yeah, that's a, yeah, I think the category is a little different, and here's why it's a little different.

[69:47] The immediate solution to anyone finding generally herself, but sometimes himself, in a situation of abuse is to separate.

[70:01] That's the first response to that, to separate. And so you separate from that abusive spouse, and if that abusive spouse persists in that abuse, then let's take it in the context of the local church, then really what's supposed to happen is that abusive spouse is to be called into account, called to recognize that you profess to be a believer, you're living a life as an unbeliever, and you need to repent.

[70:39] And that person doesn't repent, then you would go through the steps of church discipline with that person. And so what essentially happens, if that person remains unrepentant, essentially what that person has done is abandon the marriage.

[70:59] So that's abandonment in another kind of way, but it's a more patient way where there needs to be appealing and there needs to come a point where the line is drawn, you recognize, you know what, this person has abandoned the marriage.

[71:14] And I would say if a man, I'll just use a man because generally this is the case, if a man is persistent upon abusing his wife, has he not abandoned his marriage?

[71:29] He's abandoned his marriage. He's not being faithful to his marriage. That's not what marriage is. And so, yes, I think as you, it's not cut and dry as an outright abandonment person, look, I'm finished, I moved to Alaska, I want anything to do with you, this is over.

[71:50] You could have a husband who is abusive in some way and he's saying, no, no, no, I love you and I'm really sorry and I'm not going to do that again until you give him another chance.

[72:01] And then people are being patient. And so all I'm saying is that way is not as cut and dry, but I could see how with persistence, if a person stays in that vein, they would be a constructive abandoner of their marriage.

[72:19] Does it make sense? Yeah. I think you've abandoned the marriage in, indeed, even not, even though you may not have gone out of the house, but you certainly have abandoned that commitment that you've made to love that woman the way Christ loves the church.

[72:37] actually, let me do this. Let me finish these questions that I have that were sent in, and then I'll take any others that we have.

[72:58] Okay, the second entry, this question on racism, how would you deal with having the qualifications and the position being filled by someone that you have to assist in managing their portfolio because they aren't qualified for the position?

[73:17] And I'm assuming here that race is at stake, and I would say as a believer, one of the realities of life is that we face injustice.

[73:28] It's one of the realities of life, and we have to take those things to the Lord. Now, certainly, if you have recourse on the job to voice the concern, you do that in a proper manner, an objective manner, and hopefully you are heard.

[73:45] But this must be a very difficult position to be in, and I think the only way that we can do this with grace is to stay close to the Lord. Because if we don't stay close to the Lord, we'll just be overcome by anger, then you'll find yourself not one to give a full day's work because you feel that you're unjustly treated.

[74:06] And what the Bible commands is when we bear up under injustice. The Bible says that that is when ultimately we are glorifying God when we do that.

[74:18] I know that's brief, but if there needs to be follow-up, whoever would have asked this question, if you're here, you can certainly follow-up with me and give me more context. I'll try to answer. This other question, how would you get your spouse to realize there are needs that are not being addressed?

[74:39] This is after having much communication with the mate. The answer is I don't care and I'm not doing any of those things. Okay, this is a difficult question to respond to because it's hard to know the exact context in terms of what those things are.

[74:57] and here's one of the realities. Just look around to see the PG reading in the room. Not every request in marriage is a legitimate request.

[75:09] There's some illegitimate requests that should not be entertained. The Bible tells us that the marriage bed is not to be defiled. And so if these requests are legitimate requests, then certainly any spouse who wants to honor the Lord, wants to honor their spouse, should definitely be responsive to concerns that are being brought to you.

[75:41] To not respond, what you're really saying is I don't care and not doing this is more important to me than our marriage.

[75:52] And so it's important to do those things. But to the spouse who's in this situation, what I would say is, again, you have to appeal to God. You have to go to the Lord.

[76:02] Because after a while, when we have told a person for the umpteenth time to do something, what is that called? It's called nagging. And we know that it isn't that they don't remember what we said, don't know what we said, they know it, and so we need to talk to God more than talking to the spouse.

[76:23] this other question, this is on the same form. How do you love your family member, sorry, how do you love your family that's happy with their life?

[76:38] This is the question on homosexuality. How do you love the family member who's happy with their life? Do you continue to encourage them or just pray for them and let them know that you are and let them know that every opportunity that you have to speak with them?

[76:59] I would say it's both. I don't think it's either or. It's both. It's using wisdom. And this would be the same thing as well as to try to ensure that we're not badgering.

[77:09] There are a lot of Christians who kind of like have a conscience where they feel that they must tell everyone what is wrong with them because they feel if they don't tell them that they would somehow think that they support them.

[77:25] So they must go and tell everybody you know I don't appreciate I don't like what you're doing. I don't think that's right. Now I think we need to hold up the gospel and see here's the thing right? A person who's engaged in homosexual conduct needs the gospel because if they stop their homosexuality and don't turn to Christ they're just going to go to hell as a non-homosexual.

[77:55] And so what we have to do is hold out the gospel to them. Not stop doing this and stop doing that. That's moralism. That's not the gospel.

[78:08] But certainly share your heart with them. Let them know your love for them. Share the power of the gospel to them to save them and most of all talk to the Lord about them.

[78:24] Okay, the last one I have that's two more. This other one. How should a believer respond, react when experiencing racism?

[78:39] Again, unjust treatment. We certainly need to be talking to the Lord about it. And I would say talk to the Lord even before you talk to the person who may be doing that because that tempers your heart as you go to them to respond.

[78:53] So it may be a situation you could have a conversation with the person about how you're being treated. But again, we're called to bear up under injustice.

[79:05] That's just part of our lot as believers in a broken world. second part of this question, how do we believers determine when we're being racist?

[79:19] Again, racism is preferential treatment of people based on race. And we expanded it to include color and ethnicity and national origin and a wide range of other character traits that we can have attributes, things that we don't actually control.

[79:42] We don't control where we were born. We don't control the color of our skin. We don't control these things that God and his sovereignty determined for us. And so we need to be careful that we're not making distinctions where God has not made any.

[79:59] And you know, we read this morning where Paul talks about how we invent ways of doing evil. And so we could invent all kinds of ways of discriminating and being partial to one against another.

[80:14] And we simply need to just recognize them for what they are. I would say that maybe we do something subtly, but I think a lot of the discrimination that we do, we are aware of it, we're mindful of it, and we simply just need to acknowledge it, repent of it.

[80:33] this question on adultery, is it still considered adultery if you've had intimate dreams of someone else other than your spouse, even though you've not been thinking sexually about that person, you're dreaming about the answer is no.

[80:51] We know that's a dream. And thank God is a dream. So no, that's not a sin.

[81:02] I would say this though, it could be room to think about whether there could be some way we may be feeding that, because the Bible tells us that our dreams come from much activity.

[81:14] And so it could be that maybe there's content that we're allowing to come in our minds. And we would be surprised if we step back to think about a lot of the things that we just allow to come into our minds without a lot of thought.

[81:26] And they could certainly act upon our sensory perception in different ways. This is a question that goes back to the one we answered first.

[81:45] Is adultery biblical grounds for divorce and biblical rights to marry? Yes. I will say this though, God's best is forgiveness if possible.

[81:58] God's best in the face of adultery is forgiveness. That is one of the greatest expressions of the gospel at work. But sometimes it's not always possible because the person who has sinned is unrepentant.

[82:14] And sometimes divorce really is the only reasonable outcome. this last question on this form.

[82:28] What is your opinion on individuals who have been living as homosexuals, but sometimes, for some time, and then give their lives to God? Would that be considered true salvation or just another phase they may be going through?

[82:45] No, if you've truly trusted Christ, and really the biblical description of salvation is not giving our lives to God because we're not capable of doing that.

[82:58] It's God in His mercy saving us. And those whom God saves, He doesn't leave in the same condition that He met them in. And so, no, this is the background, as we said earlier this morning.

[83:15] You have a new identity in Christ, and that new identity in Christ is what defines you, not your past. Not even if there are desires that may be connected to your past.

[83:30] Those are simply desires that all of us, by the grace of God, have to resist. We've been memorizing Titus 2, 11-14.

[83:41] The grace of God has appeared, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

[83:53] All kinds of worldly passions, the grace of God enables us to do. And so, even for any homosexual desire, that, likewise, must be resisted by the same grace that God gives to all of us.

[84:06] And that doesn't define us at all. Our past don't define us, our feelings don't define us. Okay, this one just has one question on it.

[84:19] many people say everyone has a right to choose how they live their life.

[84:34] What is the proper response for us to give when they say we should just let people live a homosexual life without judging or condemning them?

[84:46] I think, again, we hold out the gospel to them, we remind them, as the Bible says, the wrath of God is coming on those who live in this way.

[84:56] We saw in 1 Corinthians 6, earlier this morning, that those who live sinful lives will not inherit the kingdom of God.

[85:08] And so, this is an expression of love and care for them by saying, you know, I love you too much to just leave you to yourself and say it's okay to live how you feel and do as you actually want.

[85:24] That's not in and of itself judgment, that's not in and of itself condemnation, that is simply holding out to them the gospel. Okay, your question?

[85:36] Yes, sir, this has homosexuality in the church as some people will actually embrace the gift and dismiss the person.

[85:52] And what I'm saying is they're on our piano, they're on the guitar, they're in the drums, they're our praise and worship leaders, a lot in the arts.

[86:04] My question to you is, as a leader, do we sit those people down until they can get better? Or do we allow them to continue in their gift?

[86:15] That's the first layer. There's two more questions. Okay, that is a very simple question. The issue is not homosexual conduct. The issue is sin.

[86:28] And if there's anyone who is involved in a sinful lifestyle, whatever that might be, then they ought not to be serving in any capacity homosexuality, because that even brings into question whether there's genuine conversion.

[86:46] And so that's not unique to anyone practicing homosexuality, that is anyone who's engaged in any kind of sin. Layer two.

[86:58] When it comes to young people, if you didn't, I'm American, if you can't hear it in this voice, but the last election, thank God that it went other ways.

[87:16] They were about to put all kinds of books and all type of teachings in our elementary schools and primary schools and things like that. It didn't happen. I'm not saying that it's not happening probably in another way, but it would have went on a large scale to have happened in a way where there would have been a lot of the teaching and the culture would have just been diluted with all types of crazy wickedness.

[87:48] But I personally have a son who has admitted to homosexuality and committed his lifestyle to that.

[88:00] Instead of pushing him away with the fact that I believe in God and we raised him with God, how do I put that road of love and just be there for him when he does turn and just continue in prayer and fasting at this point?

[88:19] Yeah, that's your son. Nothing changes the fact that that's your son. And I think you should do your best to let him know that your love for him is constant, your love for him is fixed and even in his sinful rebellion against all that he's been taught that your love for him has not been changed.

[88:45] I think where wisdom comes in is how you navigate the lifestyle that he has chosen to live in such a way that he never gets the idea that you're becoming complicit.

[88:59] So, for example, what would you do if he says, well, daddy, I want to bring my boyfriend or my husband home. They call it wife.

[89:10] Okay. Yeah, I want to bring this person home for dinner. You have to think through that.

[89:22] Okay. Okay, you've thought through that, and that's a good thing. And I would say that crosses a line because what that is doing there is that's pulling you into the lifestyle.

[89:34] He is your son. And so, he can come as an open homosexual and you're having a meal with him and he has free reign of the house. But when he brings this other person in the picture, that expands it to a realm that you're not responsible for.

[89:52] And you can say to him, no, the line is drawn there. Certainly, if he decides are we going to go get married, well then, if you make your presence known there, you're endorsing what is happening there.

[90:06] So, I think you need wisdom to really set those boundaries, but it's important to do your best that you communicate to him that he is your son. That is an expression of the gospel as well at work, that your son is always your son.

[90:22] Yes, sir. I said son, but it was my grandson. I forget my age. And lastly, about 20, yes, about 2005, about 20 years ago, I came here to Nassau and I began working in the U.S.

[90:39] embassy. But while working there, I needed just housing for like maybe 90 days. And a friend, well, not a friend of mine, but a relative who was of the persuasion of homosexuality, offered me a room.

[90:56] And I had no problem with it because, hey, we know him from a long way. We raised with him. Had no problem with it at all. Never did they try to convert me or try to persuade me or anything like that.

[91:10] Awesome living as far as the love that they had and the love that they shared and the respect that they had for my heterosexual beliefs. However, later in life, they went ahead and got married to one another.

[91:26] And I wasn't devastated because I figured it was going to go that way. But not only that, I would even talk to their children and tell them that it was wrong and get pushback from them.

[91:40] And now even the children have since married in that sense. So my point to you is, again, as I started off, where is that love factor where I just pray and be fixed?

[91:55] Just be that constant, you know, God model where somebody can say if nobody, if we can't go talk to anybody, we should be able to talk to Jerome, if that makes any sense.

[92:06] Yeah. Again, wisdom, just do your very best to keep those channels open and at the same time to not communicate in any way that you are supporting their lifestyle.

[92:22] And it sounds like you're doing that. It sounds like even the questions you're asking, you have answers to them. And I would just continue to say to you, brother, be steadfast, trust the Lord.

[92:33] Our compromise can save them. Our compromise will only send them further downhill. We need to hold out the gospel, trust the Lord.

[92:45] There are some very good books in our bookstore. I think we have the book in the bookstore, Hospitality with Keys or something like that by Rosaria Butterfield.

[92:57] Very good book. But we have several books in the bookstore, good resources on homosexual attraction, on homosexual conduct, that we would be in a better position to be helpful to people.

[93:12] Let me just say this as well. One of the things that those in a homosexual lifestyle need from us is compassion.

[93:24] They need the compassion of Christ to see that as a broken lifestyle, as bondage. And when we see it as that, we will communicate it to them as that.

[93:35] The last thing we should ever do is ridicule that sin above any other sin. We don't ridicule adultery. We don't make jokes about fornication.

[93:47] What's that? Well, yeah. But we need to hold up the compassion of Christ to them, but also the faithfulness of Christ to them to say, you need to repent.

[94:01] And repentance is God's word to all who are in sin, whatever the sin. Yeah. Yeah, I think we have a very difficult challenge, right, when it comes to what the world calls racism and colorism and all that sort of stuff.

[94:21] And I think we should take it on. And this is what I mean. I think that color is color, right? When you think about color, if something is white, it is white.

[94:36] Every human being is what we, if we look at a person and that person is phenotypically white, that person is white. That person is genotypically black, but the person is phenotypically white, the person is white.

[94:58] What do I mean? In this country, right, we have a tendency, we would say, oh, he think he white, right? The person looks white, right?

[95:11] The person's father might have been black, but the person looks white. So the person is white. They're not white, Linda. No, seriously. They're not white. They're not white.

[95:21] No, no, no, no, no, no. No, seriously. I can't be politically correct. No, listen, we should not, we should not allow the culture. White is a color, right?

[95:35] We're not, listen, if we're not, we should not get into, because if we want to, if we want to, if we are determined, right, to deal with this scientifically, and that is from a genotypical perspective, then we are going to find ourselves needing to do things that we're not able to do.

[95:59] That's one point. The other point is related to it. The second point is this question of racism. There's one race. There's the human race.

[96:10] So, to me, ultimately, there's no such thing as racism, right? And I think, I think we need to take the challenge on as well. So, yes, there is colorism.

[96:23] Yes, we can have ethnic biases, et cetera, but racism, no, we need to, it can't happen. Okay, so then, I think what we're talking here is, in terms of semantics, in terms of the words, you're saying we should put a different label on that, is what you're saying.

[96:43] Rather than call it racism, we can call it biases and prejudices and things like that. We can call it, I mean, we can call it colorism.

[96:56] Okay, okay, okay, and it's fine, I take the point, I take the point. Yeah, Amelia.

[97:09] I think, I think that Amelia has to come into a world, right? Because, unfortunately, I think we weren't adequately educated around this point.

[97:19] I think she has to come into a world where she accepts and recognizes, right? what we failed to recognize. But there's just one human race.

[97:30] It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what color we are. And color is color. If I stand here and I'm a white man, I was just looking for Tim, right?

[97:44] I don't know. I mean, Tim is white. I mean, I mean, I'm forgive you for saying that. Ask Tim. No, but Tim would say something else. I don't care what Tim says.

[97:58] I don't care what he says. Now, but here's the point. But here's the point. Half of us might look at Tim and say, you know, he looked black. And another half would say he looks white.

[98:09] That just tells us how trivial the matter is, right? It tells us how, but really, what it further tells us is that, listen, this is a matter of what our eyes tell us, phenotype, and not what's in the genes kind of thing.

[98:30] And I think that's so critical. Yeah, I take your point. And so, Lyndon is correct. There's only one race, and that is Adam's race. He's correct about that.

[98:41] I think, though, Lyndon, and we all appreciate this, that words can be used in a variety of different ways. The same word used in a variety of different ways.

[98:55] And I think that race, this word race, being used in what we may call the conventional way, the regular common way to distinguish between blacks and whites and whatever else is in between there, I think that's a legitimate conversation that we will continue to have because I don't know that we are able to universally change how the word is used to communicate what we mean by it.

[99:31] But I take your point that there's only one race at the end of the day. That's why we can all take one another's blood. We can all take one another's organs because we are really just one race.

[99:44] But we have these biases, we have these prejudices, and just for the sermon topic, certainly racism was an easier topic to really get at that.

[99:56] And that's why we broadened it even on a national level and on many other fronts as well. But your point is taken. Okay. Sorry, Troy.

[100:07] Just before everybody leaves, I have a cake there for Brian. I just didn't want everybody to leave for his birthday. Just to make everybody aware.

[100:19] More reason to hang around. What's that? What race is the cake?

[100:29] What race is the cake? Okay. All right. Any other questions before we wrap up? No? I think there's a excuse about something. You had said in the message that we wrongly take, when Peter was, when the Lord was presenting the food to Peter, are you suggesting that in no way that has to do with food?

[100:57] Because you said it was in terms of race. Yeah. So in no way it had to be. Well, I think the starting point is to look at how Peter himself interpreted it.

[101:08] Peter interpreted it to mean people. So that's our starting point. Now, we can certainly make the application to food, but there are other passages in Scripture that speak directly to that, like in the book of Colossians chapter 2, I think, where Paul says, you know, don't let anyone judge you in meat and drink and all these other things.

[101:34] So there are other explicit passages addressing the whole issue that we don't have any restrictions on food anymore from a religious point of view or from a salvific point of view.

[101:48] The only discrimination we should make about food has to do with health preferences. But, you know, as I say to people, you know, you could eat corn pork, lobster. It won't stop you from going to heaven.

[101:59] It'll get you there faster, but it won't stop you from going. And certainly if aimed up and lobster gets you there, I'll be there a little sooner, maybe a couple months earlier than I'm supposed to go.

[102:17] All right. Thanks for staying behind. I trust those were helpful.