And this is the beginning of a conversation, not the end.
And I'm aware as we come to a topic like this, there are all sorts of thoughts and hopes and desires.
People have different questions and they want different things.
Some people would love to have sort of a Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, you know, takedown about how the liberals are so bad.
And we could leave that just feeling so good about the fact that the church is conservative on social issues.
Some of you are coming and you remember that you have friends and family members that are part of the LGBTQ plus community.
And you have questions about how can I interact with them and engage them?
What do I say when I talk about these things?
I had a seminary professor who reminded us any time we discuss this topic, we are talking about someone's relative or someone's friend.
Some people are coming to this topic and you're actually experiencing same-sex attraction of some sort.
And they're unsure maybe what to do with it.
There's questions people ask.
Hey, can someone change their attraction?
And if so, how?
Maybe you're coming this morning and you already know that you disagree with what I'm going to say.
And so you're just waiting to see how badly I mess it up this morning.
I mention all of that today to set some expectations.
We're not going to address all of that this morning.
In fact, I imagine many of you, if not all of you, are going to be a little bit disappointed.
We're going to do one thing and one thing only, which is to lay out Paul's specific point in this specific passage.
Among pastors, there's this phrase we use that says,
the point of the passage is the point of the sermon.
And Paul is not making every point here.
He is saying one thing and really one thing only.
And it's this, I'll tell you at the very beginning before we even pray.
Paul's point is very simple and it's this.
Homosexuality is against God the Creator's design for this world.
That's Paul's point.
There's a Creator.
He's made the world.
He has a design.
His design is for one man and one woman in marriage.
If you're wildly offended this morning, I certainly hope it is not by me and my imperfections, but by the Word of God.
And it's for that reason that I invite you to turn now.
We're in Romans chapter 1.
We're going to start with verse 24.
You can turn with me in your Bible.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn on your worship guide.
Turn in your worship guide.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
And God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold, sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so that's why we read it now, starting at verse 24.
Verse 26.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's Word.
Father, our Father in heaven, we do thank you that you have created this world.
We thank you that it's not an accident.
It's not random.
It's not chaotic.
But that you have given it an order and a design and an intention.
And even more than that, we thank you that you haven't left us to figure that out on our own.
But instead, you've spoken clearly to us in your Word.
And we ask that you would do that very thing this morning.
That you would help us as we come to a passage that is challenging in our time and our place.
That you'd help us to see and understand.
You give us great clarity and wisdom.
You would do what we're not able to do by ourselves.
Which is to hear clearly from you in your Word.
To see and obey and respond in praise to you.
We ask all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
As I imagine most of you, if not all of you know, as we come to June,
every year we have sort of this secular calendar of secular holidays.
And June is not just a holiday.
It's an entire month called Pride Month.
Which is dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ plus community.
Now back in June of 2017,
a Royal Dutch Airlines decided that they wanted to make their support of that community clear as possible.
And so they wanted to have a great advertising campaign around it.
And they posted an image on Twitter that is now famous.
We might say infamous.
And the picture is very simple.
It has three different seatbelts on it in a row from top to bottom.
The first seatbelt at the very top has two buckles.
The second seatbelt in the middle has two latches.
And then the third seatbelt at the very bottom has one buckle and one latch.
And with that image, they said this in their tweet.
It doesn't matter who you click with.
Happy Pride Amsterdam.
And if you want to see the image I'm talking about,
all you have to do is Google the phrase,
it doesn't matter who you click with.
Now as you think about that,
what is the problem with that image?
It in fact matters a whole lot who you click with.
Even more than that,
only one of those seatbelts actually works.
Right?
Only the seatbelt at the bottom.
It turns out for a seatbelt to work,
you need one buckle and one latch.
Who would have guessed?
Right?
And so this became infamous because this tweet was trolled all over the internet.
Right?
All the comments under it and the retweets were saying,
look, this actually, this is backfiring.
Right?
If I'm on an airline,
which of those three seatbelts do I want to choose?
One and only one.
Right?
There's only one way to use a seatbelt where it actually works.
Right?
Only the seatbelt that has this complementarity to it,
only one of them is actually going to be able to close and save you.
And so to state the obvious,
a seatbelt needs one buckle and one latch.
Why?
Because that's the way it's designed.
There is a creator.
The seatbelt has a creator, right?
He's designed the seatbelt to work in a certain way.
That is Paul's very basic point in this passage.
You can look with me at verse 26.
He says,
God gave them up to dishonorable passions,
for their women exchanged natural relations
for those that are contrary to nature.
And then he makes the same point,
verse 27, about men.
And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women.
What does Paul mean here by contrary to nature?
What does he mean by giving up natural relations?
When Paul uses this word nature,
he's saying this,
there is a design to the universe.
There is a way that the universe has been created,
has been designed to work.
It is not arbitrary.
God, when he made this world,
had a plan.
He has an intention.
There is, in fact, an owner's manual.
This is not some random structure
that we get to come to as a blank slate
and try to figure out how it works.
And so one of the major points is this,
that Paul is making.
God has created men and women
to complement each other sexually.
We could say it another way.
Sex between a man and a woman
is the only sex that honors the intention of the creator.
And in 2024, we might take that a step further.
We might say sex between a biological man
and a biological woman,
the only sex that honors the intention of the creator.
I'm gonna invite you to look with me
on the back of your worship guide,
which lays out this same point.
The mandate for sexual relations in scripture
is tied to the design of the body.
The body has a purpose to it.
It has a creation.
The logic and good of marriage
is tied to the design of those bodies.
Male and female bodies are designed for one another
in a reciprocal, complementary, and life-giving way.
Same-sex sexual activity signals a misuse of the body
since homosexual acts thwart or work against
the natural purpose of sexual design,
which is another way of saying there's a creator,
he has a creation.
He has made it to work in a specific way.
Now, Paul doesn't say it here in this passage,
but he makes it clear in other parts of scripture,
it's not just that this is for a man and a woman,
it's for a man and a woman who are married to each other.
We talked about this before,
I think at least in our Sunday school at the end of 2022.
Remember the ethicist David Jones says that this is the reason
because sex is a life-uniting act,
and so it must be accompanied with a life-uniting intention.
The act and the intention go together.
That's why it's reserved for marriage.
And so again, you can see this,
this is on page seven of your worship guide.
When human beings engage in homosexual activity,
they enact an outward and visible sign
of an inward and spiritual reality,
the rejection of the creator's design.
And so really we're repeating the same point
over and over at this point,
which is that God is the creator of this world.
It is God, not us,
who determine how this world is supposed to function.
It is God, not us,
who determine what is the right and wrong use of our bodies.
This brings up another point that goes back to last week.
If you were with us as we looked at verses 18 through 23,
one of Paul's points is that
there is this burning clarity in creation,
that creation just screams about God and his ways.
It should be obvious to us
that men and women are designed by God to go together, right?
So how did Dutch airlines,
how did they not think that this image was gonna backfire, right?
Is it not obvious two of those seatbelts don't work?
Well, just think about what we saw last week.
Verse 18, very beginning,
we were told the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
In other words, it should be obvious.
In fact, it is obvious.
We just suppress it.
God has made it clear in creation.
And so again, if you have your Bible with you,
you can see this is from last week.
Verse 22,
claiming to be wise,
they became fools.
They were so caught up in this worship of the creation,
not the creator,
they missed a very elementary,
a very basic mistake, right?
They should have known in advance
this was going to be retweeted over and over.
As we think about this argument,
God is the great creator.
He's given us his intention for the world.
I wanna say a couple things.
First, to Christians and then to non-Christians.
If you're a Christian,
remember what we looked at in verse six.
Paul says,
you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
We talked about the fact that if we belong to Jesus Christ
and not to ourselves,
he is the one who tells us how we work in this world.
He's the one who tells us how we're supposed to use our bodies
and what we're not supposed to do with him.
And so if you belong to the creator,
it is a logical step to say,
you behave in the way that honors his creation.
If you belong to the creator,
you behave in a way that honors his creation.
And it turns out that God is the creator,
cares a lot about what he's made.
Right?
Imagine that if you're an artist
and you create this great work of art
and someone comes up before it
and they just splatter new paint all over it.
How's that artist gonna feel?
Oh, that's great.
I'm glad they did what they wanted.
No, you've taken my creation
and you have misused it and abused it.
Part of what we believe as Christians
is that this world and the creation in it really matter.
We honor the world in the way that God has made it.
It's God's creation.
It's not ours.
His intention, not ours.
We use it in the way he says.
So first I wanna tell you that.
God's the creator.
Second thing I'll tell you is this.
Look with me on page eight of your worship guide.
It is widely accepted today
that if a person senses a disjunction
between biological sex and sexual desire,
the only proper course of action
is to accept their psychological state
as their true authentic self.
But why?
Why assume that feelings
are more important than the body?
And the quote is saying this.
Hey, look, you might have two things
that don't match up.
Your sexual desire and your body,
they may not correspond to each other.
Why would you choose your feelings over your body?
That's an assumption you've made, right?
If you assume, well, of course,
my feelings are what matter most,
you need to ask the question why.
Why did that win?
Why didn't you say,
oh, my desires must be wrong
and my body must be right?
I'm just gonna lay that question out there.
There are books and volumes written
about how in our culture we got to a place
where we decided that feelings
are more important than biology.
And so I'll just leave you with that.
Why is it that the feelings win?
Why isn't it that the body wins?
And I'll just tell you again,
the reason in the Christian worldview
that the body wins
is because God is the creator
of heaven and earth.
Body trumps feelings, not vice versa.
We trust God the creator
regardless of how we feel.
You can feel very strongly
that a seatbelt with two latches
will keep you safe.
You can feel that as strongly as you want.
That doesn't make it real.
If you're in a plane crash,
that is not the seatbelt
that's gonna keep you safe.
It only works
when it's used the way it's designed.
It's only safe
when it's used the way it's designed.
I told you I was gonna have something
for Christians and for non-Christians.
If you're not a Christian,
what I just said to you
might not make sense at all.
We actually have to back up a step.
The statement I just made
doesn't make any sense
unless there is in fact
a creator of heaven and earth.
And so you might say,
man, that's great, Matthew,
that you think there's a designer
and a creator.
I actually don't think that.
And so I do think
my body's a blank slate
and I can do with it
whatever they want.
Paul's point here
actually rises or falls
based on whether that is true.
His argument here,
his discussion of homosexuality
actually flows out of,
it's underneath his claim
about God as the creator.
And so look with me now
at verse 25.
He says,
they exchanged the truth
about God for a lie
and worshiped and served
the creature
rather than the creator.
Logically, that's what comes first.
That's the important point.
Notice that word exchange.
It's gonna show up,
I believe,
in the very next verse,
verse 26.
For this reason,
God gave them up
to dishonorable passions
for their women
exchanged natural relations
for those that are contrary
to nature.
These two,
it's not an accident
that Paul uses
the word exchange twice.
He's telling us,
hey, there's a logic to this.
There's one exchange
that happens first,
then there's another exchange
that flows out of that.
The real fundamental
foundational problem
is that they've exchanged
the creator for the creation.
Now, guess what happens
as a result of that?
Many bad things happen.
One of them is this.
And so Paul's argument
rises or falls,
it succeeds or fails
based on whether he's right.
Is there actually
a creator to this world?
If it's not,
if there's no creator,
everything I've just said to you,
you can throw away.
Right?
That's the actual question.
Did God make man?
And so if you're not a Christian,
ultimately our disagreement
probably isn't about sexuality
fundamentally.
Our disagreement's
actually a disagreement
about God.
Has God made the world?
And so we have to back up.
We actually have to answer
that question first.
Now, I'm not gonna unpack
all of that for you.
You know, there are also books
and books that have been
written about this.
I wanna put a rock in your shoe.
Think about this.
The fact
that there is
a man and a woman
that come together
to reproduce
is the sign,
one sign,
that there is a creator.
And the reason for that
is this.
In her book,
Love Thy Body,
Nancy Piercy points out
that evolution,
macroevolution,
actually can't explain
why we have
what she calls
sexual dimorphism,
which is the idea
that we have
sexual reproduction,
not asexual reproduction.
She puts it this way.
Sexual dimorphism
cannot be explained
by any current
Darwinian theories.
Why did sex evolve
in the first place?
It is far more efficient
for an organism
to reproduce
asexually
simply by dividing
and making a copy
of itself.
Evolution can't explain
why we don't
reproduce asexually.
She goes on to say,
hey, let's imagine
that evolution
did produce that.
How would you have
intervening stages
between asexual
and sexual reproduction?
You'd have to leap, right?
You have to go immediately
from one to the other.
If you don't,
whatever that species is
is going to immediately
die out.
And so this is their,
that's why
this is a question
we don't have
an answer to.
This is her conclusion.
It is far more plausible
that sexual reproduction
is a product
of intelligent design
that natural processes
were guided by a goal
or a purpose.
The simple fact
that a man and a woman
have to come together
to reproduce
is a sign
that God has created
this world.
In fact,
there's no other
plausible explanation.
This again
goes back to last week.
Remember,
verses 18 through 20,
Paul says,
look,
what is in creation
about God
is clear.
It's obvious.
Those who don't see it,
verse 18,
suppress the truth.
I'm just going to summarize
for one minute.
We've been talking
about a lot of things.
Here's the two big points
I've made,
really three big points.
Point one,
God's the creator.
He has a design
to his creation.
If you are a Christian,
remember that you belong
to the creator.
Your body
has priority
over your feelings.
point three,
if you are not
a Christian,
remember,
sexual reproduction
points to a creator
with a design.
If there's a designer,
it really matters
what he says.
Okay?
That's where we're at
at this point.
I have a few more things
to tell you.
You may be thinking
about this
and wonder,
like,
why of all the issues,
how did Paul get there?
Like,
we're talking about
the gospel
and we're talking about,
you know,
in it,
the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith,
for faith,
and then suddenly
it feels like we took
this super abrupt
left turn.
Like,
suddenly,
without any warning,
Paul is suddenly
talking about homosexuality.
To understand
why Paul is doing that,
we have to remember
the big picture
of what's happening
in Romans.
So I told you
last week,
Romans chapter one,
starting at verse 18,
which we started
last week,
all the way
through chapter three
is making one big point.
The one big point
that's being made
in those three chapters
is summarized
in Romans chapter three,
verse 23.
Paul says,
for all have sinned
and fall short
of the glory
of God.
So what you cannot do
as you walk away
from this passage
is say this.
Oh,
okay,
great,
I'm not gay.
So it's all good.
I don't have anything
to worry about.
I'm glad Paul spoke
to those people out there.
I don't need to worry
about anything
in here.
No,
Paul is presenting
this as one
illustration
of what is true
of all humanity.
Right?
He's saying,
look,
everyone
has replaced
the creator
with the creation.
and as I'm preaching
this to you,
as I'm making this point,
I,
Paul,
want to give you
the most potent
illustration I can.
In case you missed it,
think about this.
This is the clearest,
most graphic example
I can give you,
the most visual
illustration I can provide
of how it's true
that humanity
has confused
these things.
And so why does Paul
pick homosexuality
of all the things
he could talk about?
Because it's so clear.
he's trying
to drive
his point
home.
We might say
it's as clear
as the fact
that a seatbelt
with two buckles
won't protect you.
John Calvin
says it's possible
for us
to become
blind
at noonday.
That is,
the most obvious
things
we can't see.
I say all that
to say this.
you may not
express
yourself sexually
in this way.
You have still
replaced
the creator
with the creation.
Paul is using
this as an
illustration
to drive home
what is true
of all humanity.
If you doubt that,
look ahead
for next week.
Verses 28
through 32,
Paul then goes
on to provide
a bunch of other
things that people
do when they
replace the creator
with the creation.
I'll give you
a little bit
of a sampler.
Here's the list.
This is verse 29.
Envy,
murder,
strife,
deceit,
maliciousness,
gossips,
slanderers,
haters of God,
insolent,
haughty,
boastful.
Have you ever
gossiped?
Paul says
you've exchanged
the creator
for the creation.
And so the point
of this passage
is not
homosexuals are bad,
heterosexuals are great.
No,
the point is this.
All people
have given up
the worship
of the one true God.
And so the solution,
the hope of our generation
is not that the LGBTQ plus
movement would go away.
The solution,
the hope of our generation
is that the people
in this world
would return
to the worship
of the one true God,
the creator
of heaven
and earth.
that's the solution.
That's the problem
that Paul
is illustrating
for us here.
Yes,
homosexuality
is one way
of turning away.
It's one way
of replacing
the creator
with the creation.
Paul's bringing it
as this illustration
to show us
how clear
and obvious it is.
And then he's going
to go on
in the next verses,
28 through 32.
He's going to apply
it to us.
For chapter 2,
he's going to say,
you have no excuse,
oh man,
every one of you
who judges.
Now most of what
I've shared with you
this morning,
many traditional religions
would agree with.
Islam and Judaism
would agree
on much of the
Christian sexual ethic.
Christianity is different
for this.
Paul is explaining
that all the world
deserves God's judgment.
He brings up
homosexuality
as one example
of all the world
deserving God's judgment.
And what does the rest
of the book of Romans
go on to say?
God could have left us
in sin.
What did he do?
He pursued us.
God comes
in the book of Genesis
at the very beginning
and he sees
how corrupt
mankind is
and what does he say?
This is so bad,
I'm going to destroy
the earth.
And he comes back
to Genesis chapter 9
and what does he say?
I'll never destroy
the earth
with a flood again.
I'm going to preserve
this world
despite its rebellion.
I'm going to bring
salvation
instead
of judgment.
Why will he not
destroy the earth?
Because he will destroy
his own son.
to people
who worship
the creation
rather than
the creator.
People
like you
and me.
1 Corinthians
chapter 6
verse 11
Paul is talking
about all sorts
of sins.
One of them
includes
homosexuality
and he says this
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.
Now if you know
grammar
you know that
you were washed
you were sanctified
you were justified
are passive verbs.
He doesn't say
you washed yourself
you sanctified yourself
you saved yourself.
No.
God
pursued
you.
He destroyed
the world
once with a flood.
We justly
deserve
that he would
do it again.
Instead
he saves
the world
by his grace.
It's the gospel.
It's the good news.
It's the good news
for people
out there
and it's the good news
for people in here.
For everyone
who has faith
and trust
and belief
in Jesus Christ.
And so that's why
we're going to sing together.
What patience
would wait
as we constantly roam
what father
so tender
is calling us home.
He welcomes
the weakest
the vilest
the poor
our sins
they are many
his mercy
is more.
Let's pray.
Our father
in heaven
we do
thank you
that you
remind us
of what's true
in this world
that you haven't
left us alone
as orphans
in a merciless universe
but instead
you've shown us
the way to go.
We ask that you'd
remind us
you challenge us
with our rebellion
and you'd encourage us
with our hope
and our faith
in Christ
that you would grow
our love for him.
We thank you
that we don't have to worry
this morning
about whether we've earned
or deserve these things
instead we simply ask
for them
in the mighty name
of Jesus Christ.
Amen.