Against Nature

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.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

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

1 Corinthians 6:11

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

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.