Does God Hate Lesbians, Gays and All Other Non-Heterosexuals?

Father, your word today says some hard words to us.

And we know, Father, that we know because of Jesus and his death upon the cross

that even when you say hard words to us, it is because you love us.

And so, Father, we ask that you would help us.

We ask that you would gently but very powerfully pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon our minds, upon our hearts, upon our wills, upon our souls, upon our bodies.

Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that as we hear your word and think about your word,

that your word might enter deep within our lives and then produce much fruit for your glory

in Ottawa and to the ends of the earth.

And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, just to get right to the elephant in the room, is the Bible hate literature?

Does God hate lesbians, gays, and all other non-heterosexuals?

Does God hate people like that?

And I'll say no.

And that's the end of the sermon.

We can all go to the next part.

And people say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, George.

You can't just say no.

You can't just say no.

I mean, we just, if you can just imagine if you read that at your work or at the coffee shop out loud

and then you said, does God hate gays and said no, nobody would be satisfied with that answer.

So, what does the Bible say?

Well, here's what we're going to do.

This week, something happened in my family.

I had been telling them about my, I'd been watching on Netflix a television series on Netflix.

And after I'd watched, you know, five or six or seven episodes, I mentioned to my wife and kids that they should watch it,

that they'd probably really enjoy it.

And one day, just sort of, it happened to be in the room when it was on for just a couple of minutes.

And I said, it was an image of a really, you know, attractive young woman, sweet, innocent-looking young woman,

talking to a guy.

And I blurted out, she's an assassin.

And my kids said, oh, Dad, you know, spoiler alert.

Like, why on earth did you go ahead and tell us that she's an assassin, right?

They, you know, pushed back, and they should.

It was a dumb thing for me to do.

But here's the thing.

They actually believed me when I said that.

They didn't say, no, no, no, no, Dad.

Just look at that image for a moment.

That woman's not an assassin.

She's a sweet, you know, attractive, kind, caring young woman who's showing kindness to the young man,

not actually thinking about whether she should murder him and when.

And in other words, they believed me when I said, I know how the earlier episodes go and how the story's turning out.

And they were mad at me because they believed me.

And so the first thing, before we're going to look at this text, which on the surface, as you said, as I said, I'm not exaggerating, right?

If we were to say this, if we were to go to Starbucks afterwards and we got everybody's attention, read a passage of the Bible,

and read that passage of the Bible, we would feel uncomfortable because that's how people would hear the text.

So let's just see a little bit of the context to see if the context starts to make this text sound a bit different.

So Andrew, could you put Romans 1, 16 and 17 up on the screen?

That would be great.

And those of you who were here other weeks, one of the things last week, this is the second week we're doing Romans,

one of the things I said was that this verse, the way the book of Romans is written as a book is that Romans 1, 16 and 17,

Paul, after his introduction and after some welcomes, he basically gives the abstract of the entire book.

He gives the theme, the basic message of the entire book in two verses.

And all of the rest of Romans are going to basically show how this verse, what it means in its depth and its riches.

And so let's, could you read this verse out loud with me at this time?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Here's the context.

The whole book of Romans is all about this text where it says,

for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

So here's the problem for us when we hear this.

If I was to go out with a couple of you and we were to go to that corner to King Edward and Rito,

and I was to take this table, take off the communion stuff,

bring it out there with some of our cardboard takeout coffee things,

and I was to go there and I was to stack the cups along the table,

and we were to put a big sign on the table that says,

great deal, cups of air for a dime.

Now, I mean, we would probably get people stopping to look at the table, right?

They'd say, I mean, this is pretty ridiculous, like cup of air for a dime?

And then they'd say, like, is this one of those things that you see on airplanes

where they take videos of people doing funny things and see how they react?

And then if I said, no, no, no, I'm serious.

I'm selling this for a dime.

It's a spectacular deal.

It's only 10 cents.

It's really cheap.

You should have some.

And then, you know, eventually if they realize that you're serious,

I mean, they'd wonder if you were mentally ill, right?

That's what people would think.

They'd wonder if you were mentally ill.

They'd say, George, I'm breathing for free.

Even the government hasn't figured out how to tax breathing yet

or make us pay for every breath.

It's completely and utterly free.

I don't need to pay 10 cents for a cup of air.

Now, here's the issue.

For just about everybody who walks by that corner in King Edward and Rideau

in Ottawa today, they would say that their relationship with God

is exactly the same as their relationship with air.

They're fine with God.

And so, George, if you're going to say something about needing righteousness from God

or to be made right with God by Jesus, they'd say,

George, just like they'd say about the air, I can breathe fine, George.

I don't need to buy the air for a dime.

They'd say, listen, my relationship with God is fine.

I don't need religion.

I don't need spirituality.

I don't need you to tell me what to do.

I don't need you to sell anything like that because I'm fine.

I'm fine.

That's how it is in Ottawa.

That's how it is in Canada.

And so, what that means is that when people look at Romans 1, 16, and 17,

which we're going to read again in a moment, they'd say, I don't need anything like that.

I don't need anything in that text, George.

Nothing in that text do I need because I'm fine with God.

So, can you put it up again, Andrew?

There is even the version that we're all going to read together and memorize.

Could you say this with me again, folks?

That would be very helpful.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

So, that's the text.

And now, Paul is going to start with verse 18.

And what you have to understand is from 118, and this is going to be over the next two sermons after this,

from 118 to 320, Paul is trying to tell you that the relationship with God is not like your relationship with air.

He's going to try to build a case that you need to pay attention to this verse.

And he begins, and now you listen, he goes right from that to verse 18 in your Bibles, Romans 118, for.

In other words, because, okay?

Listen to that, for.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,

who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes.

Is my mic going in and out, by the way?

It's fine?

Okay.

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.

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.

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 creeping things.

So Paul is going to begin in this chapter with just talking about the basic human condition.

In the next two parts, which we'll talk in other weeks,

he's going to talk about how religion and spirituality and moralism and institutions

deals with this whole thing and just how it deals with it.

But right now he's talking about sort of the basic level human condition.

And he's in verse 18 when it says,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

of human beings, of men and women, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

What he's talking about there, if we could think of it as vertical sins and horizontal sins.

In other words, ungodliness means that all of the different ways that we turn our back on God,

that we try to belittle God, that we demean God, that we try to tame God,

that we try to put God in his place, that we try to just ignore him, live our life without him,

tell him, did you really say this?

And it's all the vertical.

And unrighteousness refers to the horizontal sins.

And in fact, actually, it's a fine word, but it actually says that all the things that we do

that violate or transgress God's created order.

So it actually would involve things like cruelty to animals, pollution, like other types of things.

But it's referring to how we relate to the created order, in particular human beings.

And he's saying that God's wrath is revealed because we have both broken this vertical relationship

and broken these horizontal relationships and God's wrath is revealed.

And some of you might say, George, I don't, like, what does that mean, George?

Are you saying that, I don't know, I tell a lie and God zaps me with a thunder, you know, a lightning bolt?

Like, that doesn't happen, George.

Like, are you talking about sometimes, are you saying that if, you know, one of those other places,

there's a flood or something like that, and that's all God's judgment and all the bad people there?

Is that what that text is saying, George?

Because that's like a pretty weird way of understanding and viewing the world.

Like, that's pretty weird, George.

Is that what that text is saying?

It's not saying that at all.

Well, it's saying something that might touch on that, but it's actually trying to get at a far more different point.

And I'm going to use another two movie analogies.

Sorry, folks.

I don't know how many of you have watched the movie I Am Legend or World War Zed or those zombie films.

But, you know, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, there's often these films where something,

some virus or some illness or some contagion gets unleashed on human beings, gets released to human beings,

and human beings get infected by this contagion.

And then eventually it turns everybody into, like, vampires or zombies or, you know,

like, people with, like, hyper rabies who like to eat each other, like something really, really bad.

And what usually happens in those types of movies is the movies begin with just the few little hearty survivors,

you know, trying to hide or fight the vampire zombies or whatever it is that the contagion is.

But often as the movie progresses, there's flashbacks to either what the world was like before the contagion

or usually to the early days of the contagion when different weird things were happening,

but nobody realized that they had the contagion.

All of these movies are based on the same type of idea.

You know, in the Will Smith movie I Am Legend, you know, they go back,

and in fact, it's originally something that I think was going to cure cancer.

And then there starts to be these odd little symptoms,

and people didn't realize that these odd little symptoms were, in fact, an early warning sign,

a symptom of a contagion that was going to consume the individual and consume society.

And so what Paul is going to do in Romans 1.18 at the end of the chapter

is he's telling us four different signs that human beings have a contagion.

And right in those movies, in a sense, the contagion is the beginning,

like the early symptoms mean you have it.

You just see an early symptom of it,

and by the time you're watching the rest of the movie,

you see what happens when it completely takes over the person

and completely obliterates society.

So what Paul is doing here is he's going to give you four examples

of the fact that human beings have a contagion,

that our relationship with God is not like our relationship with air.

And the first contagion was in this section,

and it had to do with human beings knowing that God exists,

but suppressing that and acting as if that's not the case.

And people here might say,

George, I could never convince people in our society that that's true.

But here, I'm going to give you another movie.

I think it's my final movie analogy.

It's not from any movie.

It's a movie that I would love to make someday.

I'll never make it.

But here, imagine, this is a science fiction movie.

Imagine that, you know, we figured out wormholes or hyperdrive or time,

you know, whatever.

And so we have some spaceship, the good spaceship,

and the shuttle from the good ship Enterprise,

and we're in some far corner of the universe,

and there's a small crew.

There's like 12 of us or 10 of us,

and we come across a ship, a spaceship,

a spectacular spaceship drifting in space.

And as we come across this spaceship drifting in space,

we look at it, and we realize there's no life forms on it,

and it just seems to be just floating along.

And so I'm the captain, and I stay in the ship,

and the nine of you, the rest of you from the shuttle,

you all go over to the other ship to try to figure out what's going on.

And one of you goes in, and you press a button and turn a lever,

and all of a sudden, woo, the lights come on.

All of a sudden, woo, the oxygen comes on.

All of a sudden, woo, the gravity's working.

Okay, and I'm here on the ship, and I'm talking to you guys,

and you're walking around the ship saying,

oh, wow, the powers come on, the oxygens come on, all these things.

And then all of a sudden, one of the people talking to me says,

you know, I think this ship is a result of an explosion

on that planet that's just dust and rock,

and I think this ship is a result of an explosion there,

and it's as when the particles came into space,

they all banged together, and they made this ship.

And then the next, I'm thinking, what?

That doesn't make any sense.

And then the next thing you know, a second person, third person,

all of a sudden, they're all saying this.

And I start saying to you folks, one moment,

how could particles banging together make oxygen and gravity

and complicated machines, and how could it paint

and put letters and symbols on it?

That's not right.

And they keep saying, no, no, no, no, no,

we're completely convinced this is a result of an explosion.

By chance, it's completely remarkable.

And I would go, Captain's log, date, star date,

1, 5, 3, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I should have looked that up.

There is some contagion on this ship,

and I am not sure whether I should let the crew back on the ship

lest I get it as well.

They are under a profound delusion

that that ship has been caused by an accident.

Right?

Let me tell you.

Human DNA is vastly more complicated than a spaceship.

Your eyeball, your brain, vastly more complicated than a spaceship.

And not just that, you know, if you think about,

even whatever you think about the theory of evolution,

whatever that's going to mean, you know,

before there was any life at the level of just straight matter,

the idea that matter could come together as a result of just the fact that, you know,

matter has an attraction to each other,

that the different chemicals could come into existence,

that it could all just come from nothing,

and that it could create something as complicated

at the molecular and the chemical level of an eyeball or of your DNA.

It's vastly more complicated than a spaceship.

And we think that God doesn't exist.

And so Paul's going to say the very, very first sign

that there's a contagion in human beings

is the fact that they suppress this idea of the existence of God

that has created them and designed them.

And that, in fact, the fundamental problem for human beings

is they don't think of themselves as being made.

They think of themselves as being gods with a small g.

And it's a commonplace amongst human beings

that we think that we're like gods with small g,

rather than every day waking up and saying,

isn't it remarkable that there is a creator that created me?

And Paul's going to say this is the first sign

that there is a contagion in human beings.

I mean, you know, you just think about it for a second

before we get to the next couple.

Ottawa is one of the safest, richest, freest countries, cities, places

in the history of the planet.

We are.

We are one of the richest, most prosperous,

safest places that human beings have ever congregated.

Could anybody with a straight face look at Ottawa and say,

it's obvious from Ottawa that every person in Ottawa is completely right with God?

I mean, just this week in the Ottawa Valley,

this man who's released from jail with a long history of violence against women

murdered three women.

Can anyone actually, with a straight face,

actually believe that Ottawa is a sign?

If you look at Ottawa, you see evidence that human beings are completely and utterly right with God.

And in fact, just before we go to the next thing,

isn't it the case that every time we watch a movie

where there seems to be utopia presented,

instantly we know that that means that there's a great evil behind the utopia,

that the utopia is not real.

But why is it that we think that we're fundamentally good

or that our relationship with God is fundamentally right all by itself?

Like, why is that?

Is it possible that human beings have a contagion

that will lead to them being consumed and destroy them

and that we need something from outside of ourselves

to make ourselves right with God?

Is it possible that human beings are not relating to God like we relate to air,

but that it is something like I am legend or World War Zed

and we have a contagion that will consume us unless God does something?

So all of a sudden you think, okay, so, oh, that's a very different way of,

okay, George, that sort of caught me by surprise.

It sort of caught me by surprise a little bit.

But, well, let's see how Paul, he, this is in fact exactly what Paul's trying to get at.

So I'm going to skip the two parts about sexuality.

I am going to get it.

I'm not going to avoid the question of does God hate gays and lesbians.

But let's slip to the end of the passage to see how Paul continues.

So, in fact, I'm going to suggest that in Romans 1, 18 to 32,

Paul gives four examples to try to get us to realize

that there's a contagion present in human beings that means that they need God.

Let's look at the end one, verses 28 to 32.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,

God gave them over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Just sort of an aside, there's a bit of a, there's a word play in Greek.

Like if you were to translate it quite literally, what it says is,

and since they did not consider it worthwhile to know God,

God gave them up to a not worthwhile mind.

It's actually like a bit of a pun in Greek that our minds are not worthwhile.

Verse 28, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness,

with all manner of evil, of greed or covetousness, and of malice.

We are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness.

We are filled with gossips, slanderers, god-haters, insolent, arrogant or haughty.

We are boastful, and human beings invent ways of doing evil.

That's another way of saying inventors of evil.

And we are disobedient to parents.

And then the last four, where it says foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless,

and actually in the original language, it says that we have no understanding.

We have no fidelity.

In other words, we don't keep faith and covenant and promises with others.

We have no love, and we have no mercy.

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.

So, here's the thing.

Actually, I missed putting up my...

Here's the thing.

We all know people who give themselves up to these things.

And when it talks about the wrath of God is revealed,

in the original language, what it's saying is it's not saying that God has...

that God is short-tempered, cranky, or anger-driven.

In fact, being short-tempered, cranky, and anger-driven describes idols and demons.

And the Bible's not saying that God's anger is like human anger,

that usually human anger is rooted in pride, greed, hatred, insecurity.

And when the Bible says that God's wrath is being revealed,

it's not saying that God's anger comes from any of those things.

Once again, that actually describes idols and demons.

God's wrath ultimately develops out of his love, his goodness, and his beauty.

It describes God's calm opposition to evil,

that he will always be opposed to sin and evil,

and that he's completely and utterly, calmly opposed to it.

And his opposition to evil flows out of the fact,

not that he's insecure, anger-driven,

but it flows out of the fact that he is love.

He is goodness itself.

He is beauty itself.

And so things that mar the beauty of the created order,

the beauty of other people,

things that hurt other people or the creation,

or that out of his love and goodness and beauty,

he cannot stop being himself,

and he is just calmly, always, resolutely opposed to it.

And the beginning of God's wrath, in a sense, is the sin itself.

But it's possible that that sin itself can grow.

Every single one here in the room tells lies.

If you tell me that you've never told a lie in your life,

I would believe you're lying.

You would too, right?

Anybody who tells you they've never told a lie,

you'd say that you just lied.

Right?

Wouldn't believe anybody who said they've never told a lie.

But not only have we met,

do we all tell lies,

but you and I have probably met people

who their lying has become something like a habit.

And in fact, you might have met people

that their lying is so much like a habit

that you, anytime they talk to you,

you don't really trust them.

And in fact, probably all of us have met people

who not only do they lie all the time,

but you start to wonder,

do they actually now even know the difference

between the truth and the lie?

Has their entering into lying

robbed them of their ability to even know the truth?

And when you meet a person like that,

don't you pity them?

Like, many of us, every one of us boasts.

If you told me you'd never boast,

I'd think you're boasting.

You'd think the same thing.

We would take it as a boast that we never boast.

But haven't we met people

who seem to boast all the time

and who seem to believe they're boasting?

Haven't we met people

who they can't even talk to you apart from boasting?

And they're so completely and utterly consumed with boasting

that you don't even like being with them

because they never ask you how you're doing,

they never want to talk to you,

all they want to do is just tell you how great they are.

And not only do they only want to tell you

how great they are,

but don't you start to wonder

that they actually believe that stuff?

And don't you pity them?

Don't you hope that you would never be like them?

Don't you hope that if your wife

or your boyfriend or your kids

start to be like that,

wouldn't that be something you would pray against?

And you see, this is the idea here

that Paul is trying to get at,

the Bible is trying to get at,

he's trying to get at

that our relationship with God

is not like our relationship with air,

that human beings have a contagion within them,

and that God,

not that he's petty or, you know,

spoiled or needs to get his own way

or stamps his little feet

and bangs his hand and screams and yells

if he doesn't get his own way,

that God, who is the good,

who is the true,

who is the beautiful,

who is always himself,

who has no needs,

who's always self-contained and self-controlled,

he is just calmly, unalterably opposed

to anything which is not good,

not of love and not of beauty,

and that's just who he is and what he is,

and that when human beings

suppress the truth that God exists

and believe that they are gods themselves,

and when they give themselves

to the different things that they,

now that they've turned their back on God,

and they give themselves

to their dreams of always being able

to be over other people

or being able to have this

or have that or not have that,

and when they start to tell lies

and then get addicted to lies,

and you have a sense that every lie

or every boast,

in some ways it's its own punishment,

even if sometimes that lie

or that boasting is successful

or makes you feel good at the time,

that in some ways,

when we look at what happens,

if lies become a habit,

we start to understand

that the lie itself

is its own punishment

and a sign

that human beings have a problem,

that I have a contagion.

So, actually, Andrew,

if you could put up the first point.

I got mixed up in my points.

Here's the first point.

Every person has an idol problem.

I sort of said that a few minutes ago.

In other words,

what the Bible is saying

is that when you stop believing

and you suppress the idea

that there is a God that does exist,

it doesn't mean that you become an atheist.

It means that you worship an idol,

that you trust in something,

believe in something,

your imagination is formed by something,

that you serve something,

that you get value in something,

you understand your self-worth

in relationship to something

that's not God,

that's an idol,

and every human being

has an idol problem.

And the second thing,

if you could put it up, Andrew,

that sin and evil

show that every person

is fallen in rebellion against God

and cannot make themselves right with God.

That's what Paul's doing here in this.

Rather than relating to God

like we relate to air,

Paul, the Bible's trying to show us

that sin and evil exist in us,

in every single person,

in religious people,

in irreligious people,

in secular people,

in very, very devout people,

in people inside the church

and outside the church,

in mosques,

and in temples,

and in parliament,

and in capitalist centers,

and in Bridgehead,

and in Starbucks,

and amongst street people,

and amongst billionaires,

that every single human being,

that there is sin and evil in them,

and that it shows

that human beings are fallen.

It means that we have,

in a sense,

made ourselves bent and twisted.

And the image of God,

that we were made,

so that we were made in the image of God,

to reflect God,

and to be connected to God,

and be connected to the God,

and who we were made in image,

that's now become bent,

and it's become twisted.

And that's what it means to be fallen.

And that every single human being

is in rebellion against God.

That every single person has a time,

even the most humble of us,

even those who are most willing

to accept correction or reproof,

that there's every single one of us,

if a time comes,

and we get called on the lie,

we get called on the boasting,

we get called on something we do,

that we do not like it.

Do not like it.

Even if we have good manners

to cover it up,

we don't like it.

We're rebellion against God.

And that we cannot make ourselves

right with God.

In light of that,

let's look at sex.

Let's look at sex.

Let's look at verses 24 to 25.

Once again, remember I said

this section's talking about

the human condition.

And so the first thing,

because I've sort of got it out of order,

the first thing is our suppression

of the truth about the existence of God.

The fourth thing was just the reality

of all these other things,

of deceit, of covetous, of greed,

of slander, of gossip,

and all of those types of things.

Let's go back up to the second one,

verse 24.

Therefore God gave them up

in the lusts of their hearts

to sexual impurity.

That's what the word means.

It's translated as impurity,

and you have to add the word sexual

so that we understand

that that's what it's meant.

To the dishonoring of their bodies

among themselves,

because they exchanged the truth

about God for a lie

and worshipped and served

the creature rather than the creator

who is blessed forever.

Amen.

That's the second sign.

What the Bible here is telling us

is that every single one of us

in this room

are sexually bent and twisted.

I stand before you

as a fallen man.

I stand before you

as a man

who is not sexually whole.

And I'm addressing

a room of people

who are not sexually

whole and perfect.

This text

is not a text

that says,

in here

we're pure,

out there

they're bad.

And times

when that creeps

into the church's thinking

it is profoundly unbiblical.

Profoundly against the gospel.

In fact,

the book of,

the book of,

the Bible begins

in Genesis 1 and 2

with the creation

and then Genesis 3

is the fall.

And immediately

as soon as human beings

are falled

we see that there's

a breakdown

of the relationship

between the sexes.

We immediately see

that Adam and Eve

are conscious

of their nakedness.

We immediately see

that Adam and Eve

passing the blame.

We immediately see

disharmony in the relationship.

We immediately see

the entering

into the world

after they deal

with murder

of polygamy,

of violating

this idea

of that God's

intention in creation

is faithfulness

in heterosexual marriage

or sexual absence.

abstinence.

That's the consistent

teaching of the Bible.

To be faithful

in one man

with one woman

and if that is,

if you're a man

and you're not married

to a woman

then God calls you

to sexual abstinence.

If you're a woman

and you're not married

to a man

God calls you

to sexual abstinence.

Another way to put it

is that there is

to be no sexual knowledge

or sexual stimulation

outside of the relationship

of one man

to one woman.

And,

you know,

the fact of the matter is

it doesn't matter

if you're a soccer mom

in Canada,

it doesn't matter

if you're a stay-at-home dad

living in one of the

expensive condos

in Ottawa,

that we have problems.

We idolize our kids.

We idolize

childlessness.

We idolize our body.

We idolize

maybe our marriage.

We make an idol

of the other person.

We make an idol

of ourselves

and we demand

that the other person

think of us

in a particular way.

And if actually God

could just for one

week's period

put all of the thoughts

and all of the impressions

and all of the ideas

and all of the imagination

and all of the fantasies

that go on

in our head

just in the relationship,

just in terms

of sexual relations,

no single,

and if that could be put up

on that screen today,

even the best one of you

would be horrified

at what the rest of us

would see went on

in your mind.

And the Bible is saying

that this is the second sign

that we have a contagion.

And then the third sign

that we have a contagion

is a subset

of sexual brokenness.

and it's the relationship

that some people have

that they,

a man,

men desire men,

women desire women,

or other things

that depart

from a man

sexually designing a woman

or a woman

sexually designing a man.

It's in verses 26 and 27.

For this reason,

God gave them up

to dishonorable passions.

For their women

exchanged natural relations

for those that are

contrary to nature.

And the men likewise

gave up natural relations

with women

and were consumed

with passion

for one another.

Men committing shameless

acts with men

and receiving in themselves

the due penalty

for their error.

Remember what Paul is doing?

He's giving four signs

of contagion.

The first is in terms

of our knowledge of God.

The second is in sexual sin.

Generally,

this is the third one

and then the fourth one

was the long list of vices

which come immediately

after that.

you know,

over the last

35 years,

40 years,

there's been a profound attack

on reading this

in this particular way.

There's the normal way

that it should be understood

in the Greek

and it's been always understood

by the church.

There's been attempts

to say that it's not

talking about that.

It's talking about

men and boys

or it's talking about

abusive relationships

between two men

or abusive relationships

between two women

or that it's men

who are heterosexual

engaging in gay sex

or other types of things

but all of those

revisionist attempts,

they're all completely

and utterly wrong.

Like,

they're all wrong.

There's word games

that are not,

they're not right.

And just as a bit

of an aside

for those of us

who are Christians,

you know,

given that this verse here

is saying that

not that men

who desire

to sexually know

another man

or a woman

who desires to sexually

know another woman

is the worst sinner.

It's not saying that.

Not saying that at all.

In fact,

actually,

we Christians

have a lot to repent of

in terms of dealing,

those of us

who do not find

that,

you know,

like,

that we desire

people of the same sex

or that we desire

to be a different sex.

Like,

we have a lot

to repent of

in terms of

our relationship

with people

who do struggle

with those things.

You know,

because often

people who struggle

with those things,

they sense

how we

who don't struggle

with those things

pull away

as if somehow

we're better.

And somehow

we can easily

fall into talking

about them being,

like,

perverted or something.

And yet,

we don't say

that somebody

who is a Mercedes

driving,

fully devoted

servant of mammon

has a debased mind.

I'm not insulting.

If you drove here

in a Mercedes,

I didn't mean

to insult you.

Like,

why is it

that we could,

we might pray

that we would get

close to this

Mercedes driving,

fully devoted

servant of greed

and be terrified

about actually

drawing close

to a member

in our congregation

who struggles

with attraction

to the same sex?

Like,

where do we get

that from the Bible?

Like,

where does that

fit here?

Folks,

it should break

our hearts

if we do that.

It should bring us

on our knees

in repentance

if we find

that we have

no problem

associating

with a Mercedes

driving,

fully devoted

servant to greed,

but feel

uncomfortable

talking to ones

who struggle

with a different

type of sin.

it should break

your heart

and mine.

We should pray

that that not

characterize our church.

The same token,

churches that say

that being attracted

to a member

of the same sex

is a sign

of God's blessing

and it should be

honored and celebrated,

that becomes

a gospel issue.

All of this

is written

so that we realize

we need a Savior,

not that we believe

that we don't need

a Savior

and that Jesus

should pat us

on the back.

And for a church

to say that it means

that Jesus should

pat us on the back,

it is a profound

rejection

of the gospel.

A profound

rejection

of the gospel.

See,

here's what God

wants us to understand.

If you could put up

the final point,

Andrew.

I'm sorry,

it's 41 minutes.

I'll wrap this up

quickly now.

Only God

can act rightly

to make ordinary

people

right with himself.

The Bible

wants us

to come to realize

that there's

something like

a contagion

in my life

and yours

and that

only God,

only God,

only the creator,

only the sustainer,

only he

can act

in the right way,

which we'll get

to see clear

as the weeks go on,

to make ordinary

people right

with himself.

Andrew,

can you put up

Romans 1,

16 to 17 again,

please?

Want to read this

with me?

Remember,

this is all

in service of this.

Read it with me,

please.

For I am not

ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power

of God

for salvation

to everyone

who believes,

to the Jew first

and also to the Greek.

For in the gospel,

the righteousness

of God

is revealed

from faith

to faith.

As it is written,

the righteous

shall live

by faith.

There are several

responses we will

have to this sermon.

I know,

I'm sorry,

I'm just going to

go a few minutes

over my time,

but listen,

here's one of our

responses.

Some of you might

hear this and say,

God should just

get out of my face.

He should just

leave me alone.

George,

how dare that

say that in the Bible?

You know,

that's why people

don't go to church

anymore.

Like,

either God

should get with

the project

of my life

and should be

supportive of

what I'm going

through and

what I desire,

and if he doesn't

get supportive

with me,

I don't want

anything to do

with him.

He has no right

getting involved

with this in my life.

Some of you

might have noticed

that all the way

through this text,

it says,

God gave them up.

God gave them up.

God gave them up.

And if we react

by saying that

to God,

then we've just,

I'm not saying

this to insult you.

It's a description

of hell.

You're just,

you're asking

that that lie

that you give yourself

for those who are liars,

that that lie

just becomes

your identity

and takes over you.

The whole image

of God gave them up,

it's an image

of captivity.

It's an image

of common grace.

It's an image

as if there's a river

and there's a boat

tied up to a dock

on the river

and the river,

the current of the river

keeps wanting

to pull the boat away,

pull the boat away,

pull the boat away,

but God,

by his common grace,

stops the boat

from going

and then you say,

I don't want God

to get involved

in my life.

I want God

to leave me alone.

I want to be able

to do the things

I want to do.

I want to pursue

my projects

and if God can't

affirm me,

I want him

to just let me go.

I want him

to get out of my way,

out of my life,

I'm completely

and utterly fine

by myself

and God unties

the moored boat

from the river

and lets the boat

be carried away

by the river

and God gave them up

as a sign of his wrath.

It's a sign

of contagion.

I implore you

in response to this

not to react that way

and some of you

might say,

George,

okay,

especially those of you

who struggle

with same-sex attraction,

George,

you know,

if you just knew,

if you just knew

how strong

that drive was in me

and George,

if you just understood

and know

how many times

people condemn me,

they don't know

that I have

these attractions

or maybe they do

and they say snide things

and they make jokes

about people

like myself

and George,

if you just knew

how my dad

used to treat me,

if you just knew

how my dad

would look at me

and how my coach

would look at me

and how my pastor

would look at me

and how godly people

would look at me

and how people on TV

would look at me

and if you just knew

all those things,

all the wrath,

all the anger,

all the put-downs

that I have to endure,

then George,

you would not say that

because George,

sometimes in the face

of all the wrath

and all the anger

that seems to befall me

and I seem to sometimes

feel myself

and it's only when I embrace

my same-sex attraction

or my same-sex,

that it's only then

that I seem to get

some type of release

because George,

if you just knew

the anger and the wrath

and the setting aside

and turning the back on

that just characterized my life,

you not,

God wouldn't say that,

you wouldn't say that.

When we read about

the wrath of God

at the beginning,

Paul is setting up

one of the most

spectacular promises

promises in the whole

book of Romans.

If you just turn

in your Bibles,

those of you have Bibles,

if you don't,

you can just listen.

Turn to Romans 3,

Romans 3:21

verse 21 and 26.

Remember I said

that from 118

to chapter 3,

verse 20,

you might not remember this,

that Paul is painting

the picture

that there's a contagion

amongst human beings

that means that

we need a Savior

and when he comes

to an end,

this is how he triumphantly

brings it to an end

in verse 21.

I mean,

he's going to explain it

more throughout

the rest of the book.

We're going to look at

in a couple of weeks,

but here's what he says.

But now the righteousness

of God has been manifested

apart from the law,

although the law

and prophets

bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God

through faith in Jesus Christ

for all who believe,

for there is no distinction,

for all have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God

and are justified

by his grace

as a gift

through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward

as a propitiation

by his blood

to be received by faith.

This was to show

God's righteousness

because in his divine

forbearance

he had passed over

former sins.

It was to show

his righteousness

at the present time

so that he might be just

and the justifier

of the one

who has faith in Jesus.

Look back up

to verse 25,

whom God put forward

as a propitiation

by his blood.

What does that mean?

What does propitiation mean?

the wrath

that I deserve,

Jesus comes

and says,

George,

if the wrath

that is coming upon you,

if it comes upon you,

it will completely unmake you.

Let me take your place

and let the wrath

that is falling on you

fall on me

and I will take

every drag

of wrath,

every drag

of hostility,

every drag

of putting aside

and belittling

and diminishing

and demeaning

and I will take

every drag

with nothing

left over

and I will take

that upon

myself

for you.

that is what

I have done

for you

on the cross,

George.

Don't embrace

sin,

embrace me.

Embracing sin

does not take away

the wrath

or the anger

or the diminishment.

Embrace me

and let that

fall on me.

I will do it

for you

out of love

for you

to make

you right

with God.

My death

for you

upon the cross

is a power

that comes

from God

that swallows

wrath

so you

can be right

with God

and be free.

Do not

embrace

your sin.

Embrace

me.

Andrew,

could you put it

Romans 1,

16 to 17

one final time?

Can we all

stand please?

That's what

Paul's talking

about here.

Can you say it

with me one

more time

please?

For I am not

ashamed of the

gospel

for it is the

power of God

for salvation

to everyone

who believes

to the Jew

first and also

to the Greek

for in the

gospel the

righteousness of

God is revealed

from faith

to faith

as it is

written

the righteous

shall live

by faith.

Faith means

you come

with empty

hands

you don't

surrender

you don't

tell God

to go away

you come

to that

point

where you

say only

God

only you

can act

in a way

that's right

that will

make me

right with

yourself

only you

will do

it

and you

will do

it for

the religious

and the

irreligious

the spiritual

and not

spiritual

the greedy

and the

people who

give things

away

the people

who are

sexually

broken

terribly

and those

who are

hardly

sexually

broken

at all

that you

will give

it for

ordinary

people

that it's

a gift

that God

gives

and offers

to you

and there's

no better

time than

today

to once

again say

Jesus

I don't

understand

all there

is about

this text

but whatever

this is

talking about

I want to

have that

I want to

embrace that

I want to

have that

as my

identity

I want to

have that

as the

ground

of my

life

I want

to have

that

enter

into

my

life

Jesus

that

for me

and me

for that

may that

be the story

of my life

that begins

today or is

deep in

let's bow

our heads

in prayer

Jesus

we thank

you for

dying on

the cross

for us

we thank

you Jesus

that on

the cross

you took

my place

you took

the place

of people

who are

here

we thank

you Jesus

that on

the cross

that you

not only

took the

wrong things

that we've

done upon

yourself

but the

proper

anger

that God

and others

and the

whole created

order

have at

the things

that we've

done

to mar

goodness

and love

and beauty

that you

took that

proper

anger

upon

yourself

for us

that you

took it

all right

to the

dregs

with nothing

left over

Jesus

we thank

you for

what you

have done

for us

on the

cross

please

Jesus

pour out

your

Holy Spirit

upon me

help me

Jesus

to be

grounded

to receive

this

to be

grounded

in this

to be

shaped

by this

to have

this

grip me

so that

it

so that

I

Jesus

help me

not to

turn

and embrace

my sin

but embrace

what you

have done

for me

on the

cross

and

that you

have made

me right

with God

and that

nothing can

take that

away

because you

have done

it for me

it's your

power not

mine

Jesus

make me

a disciple

of yours

gripped by

this gospel

who now

lives for

your glory

and this

I ask

in the name

of Jesus

your son

and our

savior

amen

to

him

to

him

he

can

you

he

can

go

him

in

bye