Is the Bible Accurate and Trustworthy?/Is the Bible Actually God's Word?

All right, One of the things I would want to maintain is that

Christians aren't going to make any headway by trying to split

the difference between faith and unbelief.

If you have unbelief and faith and you split the difference,

you just get a muddled form of faith or a Christian.

What about? This idea of Jesus Christopher,

you don't buy it at all, I take it.

Well, I don't think he was the son of God.

He don't, no, I don't think his mother was.

I don't think his mother was a virgin and I don't think he died

and was resurrected. But it's also something that can

humble you if you think about it correctly.

It it makes you. It helps put everything in

perspective. Good morning.

How are we doing today? Man, it's good to see you.

Happy Memorial Day weekend. I think, I think we can say that

we get to celebrate a lot of stuff because of a lot of people

who sacrificed. And many of you have family

history of people who have done that and given the greatest

sacrifice for our country. And so that we can actually open

this Bible and not have an edited version of it and not

have to argue about whether or not we can read it with fear of

someone sitting outside saying no too far.

Can't talk about that. And that's one of the freedoms

we get to. So beyond your cookout that

you're going to have probably tomorrow, just remember that

that's actually about, you know, the the freedom to discuss

stuff, to disagree. I can disagree with my

government and not fear that they're going to come and show

up in my house and kill me. Amen.

And that's, that's a good thing. And I think that's one of the

freedoms we get to celebrate on the subject of apologetics, when

we talk about being able to not only articulate the faith that

you have, but the ability to give a defense for it.

And that's really what our series has been in the last

several weeks called liar, lunatic, or Lord.

And I'll just be blunt. I wanted to outsource this

message. I did not want to do it.

And God, I think really wanted me to do it.

So I'm I'm going to do my best. This makes me nervous what we're

going to talk about today. If you've been paying attention

to the God and where we're at, you kind of know where we're at.

It's that Sunday and it fell on Memorial Day week in which may

be the grace of God. I don't know, because you know,

you're all you're all the people who couldn't go to Pismo and

we're really glad you're here anyway.

But I'll I'll be blunt. This is personal.

I've been nervous all week and prayerful and and tactical in my

study. I feel like this is one of those

areas where we've got to be very gracious, but we've got to be

very clear and getting it right. And so I've read everything you

can find articles for what we're talking about, the art, the

arguments against that being the wrong view of what we're talking

about in the word. Done everything I could to

study. I probably put in about 27 hours

into this message this week, which is pretty abnormal.

It's about 12 to 15 more than I'm normally hitting on an

average week of study and prep time leading up to a message.

But I really wanted to read everything I could and study

everything I could. And I want to remind you of the

tone in which this entire conversation has been housed

while we're doing this series comes out of first Peter chapter

1 Peter 3:15

3, verse 15. And if we can in a second, can I

get some more house lights so they can read their Bibles and

so I can see them? Because right now you all look

like you're just in a dark room. And it scares me.

I want to see if you're gnashing your teeth at me.

I'd love to actually be able to see that it says this first.

Peter 315 In your hearts, honour Christ the Lord is holy.

Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you

for a reason, for the hope that is in you.

Yet do this with gentleness and respect.

So two things, we are to give reason for the hope that we have

and we are to be respectful and gentle in the way that we

articulate that. In fact, throughout this

message, I hope if you feel any kind of harsh tones there in the

moments where I'm talking about the church and any kind of

gracious tones are in the moments we're talking about

those who may not consider themselves a part of the church.

And so today I want to talk to you about the Christian

Christianity and the LGBTQ community.

So Christianity and the LGBTQ community, and in particularly

this perhaps is probably the issue of controversy of our

time. It is an ethical issue that is

personal in that we have family and friends and people that we

love and care for and would willingly do anything for.

Honestly, people who are better human beings than many of us

that are in this room, who are incredible philanthropist,

incredible contributors to our society, who identify within

this community. And so we we have this ethical

issue coming up. And I want to be very clear that

what I'm not doing today is trying to discern the goodness

or lack of goodness within a human being.

This is not a debate of good or bad.

Are they good or are they bad people?

That, that is not the debate that we are having.

In fact, I would submit to you that for many of my own personal

relationships with people from this community, many of them are

better than any of us ever thought about being as far as

human beings and philanthropists and humanists.

OK, Like way better, way better. We're tracking so far.

What we are trying to discern is what does the Bible actually

teach and say, which is actually one of the things that's under

attack. And there's a lot of discussion

around trying to essentially get to the real meaning or revision,

what has been the traditional meaning of what the Bible

teaches. So this is a personal issue.

I acknowledge that it is an issue that is usually addressed

in our conversations through lots of feelings and emotions.

But today, what I want to actually have is a scriptural

conversation as best as we can. And it's something that this

week I've been extremely prayerful, nervous, and detailed

in my study to prayerfully prepare for today.

And So what I want to do is break this up into two parts.

And this is probably going to be the most apologetic sermon we've

done in the series so far, because I actually want to teach

you how to have gracious and kind conversations about what

the Bible teaches and doesn't teach.

So I'm going to start out by talking about the mistakes the

church has made that I think have led to the cultural

landscape that we're in. And then I want to look at the

common disagreements or arguments towards the

traditional held view in most churches around the country and

around the world when it comes to things that are taught in the

Bible and what they mean within the landscape of today.

And SO2 parts, trying to spend about 10 to 15 minutes in the

first part, bulk of our time on the latter part, looking at some

of the defenses that are there. Are we tracking?

All right? With that in mind, let me just

go into the extreme. Some of the extremes that we've

seen within the church that have added to the problems, that not

helped with the problems, number one is involved, excuse me,

mistakes. The first two of these involve

extremes, extreme stances the church has taken that have not

helped the conversation. 2 extremes, number one.

The first extreme is in how we speak of sexual ethic issues in

public. The church has gotten it wrong

here because the church is often either silent or arrogant.

We either say nothing or we're the bullhorn.

We're silent or mute, saying nothing, meaning we try to

minimize what the Bible does say because we don't want to have to

deal with its tension that it brings into the room and into

the conversation. We call for love and

peacekeeping without without considering seriously the

warnings of the Bible teaching on issues that matter enough for

them to be recorded in Scripture.

I wanna say that last part again.

We we try to keep some kind of weird peace.

So we avoid it. We ignore it.

And in doing so we ignore things that the Bible thought was

important enough for them to be recorded in Scripture for us to

have to work through and talk about the tension of it.

Or the other extreme when it comes to Speaking of sexual

ethic issues in public is the church has been the other side

of it is we either been silent or we've been arrogant, arrogant

and boisterous. Meaning we are bullhorn

noisemakers who with no relationship, no empathy, no

compassion, no desire to actually study the scriptures

and reason through them. No desire to actually teach them

in a helpful way or point others to Jesus.

Carelessly stand up and create divisiveness that is not derived

from the Bible or Jesus, but out of the desire to prove a point

over actually making a difference.

And so we have this extreme culturally where we've got a of

people that are completely silent and a group of people

that are extremely loud. And the group that's extremely

loud all of a sudden represents everybody when it comes to the

Christian faith. And that, my friends, cannot

happen. There has to be a voice that

fights for the truth of the scriptures and the love that the

Savior called us to carry the message with.

This is something we must get right, not just in a issue, but

in all of these issues that we deal with as we confront a world

that is looking for truth. The second extreme that we've

dealt in that has not helped the situation is the extreme and how

we relationally engage people from the LGBTQ community.

SO1 extreme is how we talk about sexual ethics.

That's silence and arrogance. The other extreme is how we've

engaged people in relationship from this community and that is

the 2 extremes of affirmation or alienation.

So the the idea is you affirm everything and say nothing is

wrong or you have no community with them at all, or you

alienate them and isolate them. Which means there's no

opportunity for a relationship, community and gospel

conversations to actually take place.

So the affirmation side, essentially what I've seen them

do is they choose to minimize the authority of Scripture,

revision it or ignore it in order to affirm something that

we are sure based off a feeling and not the word of God that

Jesus himself would affirm. So the arguments usually go,

well, it's a different culture and time, as if this community

didn't exist back in Jesus time, as if there's as if all the

sudden this is a 20th century invention.

When in actuality, the struggles we have are the struggles we've

always had are the desires we have, are desires that have been

imprinted throughout generations, overtime, and

throughout the years. So we have affirmation.

The other side is alienation. Alienation is dismissing the

LGBTQ community because of a truth that we proclaim with no

compassion or desire to actually bridge into and understand the

hurts, struggles, and pains that they, as image bearers of God,

bear. It's proclaiming that,

proclaiming the truth with no desire to actually experience

the Holy Spirit's work in it to bring any kind of

reconciliation. So there's been two extremes

that the church has erred in. Arrogance and alienation and

silence. Or, excuse me, affirmation,

alienation and silence and arrogance.

Both wrong ways of addressing this topic.

Which then brings me to the third problem within the church.

And this is a human problem. But we can absolutely

acknowledge it within the church, and that is consistent

hypocrisy. Consistent hypocrisy to point

out other sins and not our own, to not repent, to make it

abnormal, to repent, to make it abnormal to acknowledge your

sin, to put on what we call church clothes and the church

face and that like everything is going well and to be passive in

our devotion to God. Consistent hypocrisy In Matthew

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

Chapter 7 versus 3 to 5 Jesus says this.

Why do you see the spec that is in your brothers eye but do not

sit notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me take that spec

out of your own eye when there is a log still in your own eye.

Let me be very clear about this. Any time that we've in recent

years been confronted with someone who's had an ethical or

moral failure, the first thing that I do with our elders and

leaders is I get them in the room and my first words to them

before we say anything is repent.

Repent like we're seeing their sin publicly, but your sin is

still present in private. So before it becomes public,

let's put it out there publicly. Let's make it known in the world

that we ourselves are sinners in need of a Savior.

And in that way we can portray that it's OK to be at fault and

in the presence of God at fault and within the community of God

imperfect and still walking amongst God's people.

So our first step is always repentance before we go and

confront someone else. So many people read that they're

like Amen. So you call your sin and you

leave me alone. But that's not what the text

actually teaches. What the text says in verse 5

is, you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and

then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your

brother's eye. What is it saying?

There is an accountability that I have to you that if I see you

professing to be a follower of Jesus and walking in sin and not

calling it sin or ignoring it or dismissing it, I have an

obligation to check myself and to put a mirror up through the

Scripture and look into my own life.

And then through doing that, humbling myself to the authority

of Scripture and the presence of God, and then to humbly and

lovingly confront you in your sin.

And this is a practice that does not happen in church in America.

You would rather them die. Then you have to have a

difficult conversation with many of them.

Well, this just do what you feel.

Do what you think is right. So we have extremes in how we've

spoken on the issues. We have consistent hypocrisy

that is risen in the church where we highlight other sin

while minimizing ours, which all that does is make us arrogant

clinging gongs according to First Corinthians chapter 13 and

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

the scriptures call us before confronting our brother with the

scriptures that we first confront ourselves.

So let me be very clear about Jesus in this story.

Jesus befriends sinners. That's Mark 213 and 17.

We see that as he eats with tax collectors and sinners.

Jesus has compassion on sinners. That's Matthew 936.

Jesus loves sinners. That's John 1513.

Every single one of us are sinners.

That's Romans 323 And within all of that Jesus calls all in sin

to repentance. That's John 811.

So here's the tension. Jesus loves you, He loves you,

but in relationship with him, he calls you to a better way.

Now, you never think that the way is better whenever you're

walking in something that's familiar or comfortable or

that's an actual desire of your flesh.

But the Bible is clear that Jesus's love is both love and

confrontation. It is love and a call to

something greater and it's not a call to something greater that

is derived from your own power. It is derived from the

indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is through the same power

that raised Jesus from the dead that fills us that then empowers

us to walk out what Christ has called us to walk out.

Now let me be very clear. I am shocked at how simple I am

and still filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is shocking to me how passive I can be about the things of God

and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So let me be very clear to you, I'm not saying that the power of

the Holy Spirit means snap. Everything like Thanos's glove

is taken care of. Anything but that.

What I am saying is that Jesus love and Jesus call to holiness

does not lead you inadequately under sourced or underpowered to

take on that journey. You will fail, you will make

mistakes, there will be simple desires that will not go away.

The Bible doesn't promise that When you pray a prayer or people

pray of you, all of a sudden magically all of your sinful

desires go away. I am still shockingly sinful,

but I am filled with the presence of God and he is

empowered and called me, though it is difficult and sometimes

contrary to my first nature, the nature of my flesh, He still

calls me to this new creation to be in the person that He's

called me, to be laid out by the Scriptures and empowered by the

Holy Spirit. So let me take you through 4

common objections when it comes to this conversation that come

up. If you say you're Christian and

someone's looking to make a point and some of this culture

has been created by us and we've got to own that.

Four questions that come up. And I want to talk with you

through how we answer these questions with kindness and

grace. Number one, one of the first

objections to the Bible's teaching, the traditional view,

which is that the Bible teaches that the practice of any kind of

sexual, that the practice of any kind of sex outside of

heterosexual marriage between one man and one woman is sin.

Let me be clear. The Bible teaches that any kind

of sexual arousal or any kind of sexual interaction with someone

who is not your spouse, one man, one wife, laid out in Genesis

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 that that is sent so quickly.

We can go back to every single one of your wedding days and

know that though you were white, there was a different story that

could have been told. OK, got got quiet on there.

OK, here's some of the objections to that.

Number one, people will say, well, there's a lack of

Scripture addressing this issue, or Jesus never addressed the

issue directly, so why are you making a big deal out of

something that's infrequently mentioned throughout Scripture

or Jesus never directly talked about himself?

A couple things there. OK, every time I've ever heard

someone say that Scripture doesn't address this frequently,

it usually goes something like this.

Well, it's only written in the Bible 6 times.

So let me be very clear. Anytime someone begins an

apologetic with it's only written in the Bible, fill in

the blank. That should immediately raise a

red flag. Here's why the But the

scripture, whether it's mentioned once or 100 times, is

given to us as authoritative and is to hold with us a clearview

of who God is that's revealed to us.

So to dismiss or overlook a scripture is tied to the on the

basis of its frequency and it's mentioning within the Bible or

lack thereof is absolutely a terrible way to start.

We're already trying to revision and edit Scripture.

We're already trying to go, well, he mentioned money this

many times and he mentioned sexual ethics this many times.

So if he only mentioned sexual ethics this many times, the

money this many times, I'm going to go work on the money thing

and we'll just leave this one alone until you know, when Jesus

comes back. It's not how it works.

It's not how it works. Now the six passages that are

described are called by a lot in the LGBTQ community, the clubber

verses the verses that people use as Christians to beat with.

Because we've not been surgical, we've instead been careless in

the way that we've taught and looked at them.

And we also haven't noted that in almost every single one of

them, it mentions a plethora of sexual sins beyond same sex

attraction in the text that we conveniently ignore and continue

to be promiscuous in our own life, which gives you no, which

gives you no footing our founding to have a conversation

with people when you're unrepentant about the sexual sin

that you're hiding in your own closet.

What about Jesus? Jesus doesn't mention

homosexuality when he's here. He doesn't talk about it,

doesn't call out to be a sin. That's a lie.

Let me answer that a couple ways #1 Jesus did address sexual

ethics, and in doing so, He addressed all of it in Matthew 5

and in Matthew 19. In fact, in Matthew 19, if you

look at it, Jesus says this. He answered.

Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning

made them male and female? Where does that language come

from? Genesis.

Where? Genesis 2?

OK continue with me or how can you say to your brother or

excuse me not there verse 5 and said therefore a man shall leave

his father and and his mother and hold fast to his wife and

the two shall become where does that come from?

What is Jesus affirming? The design of marriage and the

design of sex. Sex was created to be uniquely

shared within the constraints of heterosexual marriage.

Now, immediately. Everyone gets uncomfortable in

the room whenever we talk about that.

Why? Because that has been disputed

and argued against over and over again.

And then the argument comes back.

Well, Jesus never addresses it when actually he does.

You can't dismiss it. I understand.

Listen to me, this is personal to me.

I have friends that I love deeply, family that I love

deeply, and we have these conversations, but I do them no

disservice by trying to PC or politically correct Jesus and

give them some sort of pseudo savior I have to calmly and

gently walk through. I understand this is your desire

and understand that you believe Jesus didn't mention it so that

means it's not a big deal. But he actually did and that's a

lie that you read. In the book Jesus addresses

marriage and in doing so he addresses all sexual ethics and

and practices. In the text he addresses Genesis

2IN doing so he affirms the Old Testament teaching about the

design of human sexuality within the context of marriage between

one man and one woman. The second thing in this

response of well, the Scripture doesn't address this a lot or

Jesus never addresses the issue directly.

The second thing I like to say is this, Jesus is a member of

the Godhead. So even if you don't want to

come with me to agreement that Matthew 19 is Jesus addressing

sexual ethics, you can't separate Jesus from the things

that He said in the Gospels and the things that are taught in

the rest of Scripture. To do so is to make an argument

that somehow Jesus was in disagreement with the Father

about what was taught in the Old Testament and the Spirit was

what was written after his resurrection in the New

Testament. There's perfect harmony here

between Father, Son, and Spirit. Meaning whenever the Old

Testament was being written, Jesus was there and active, and

Jesus was there and active. Whenever we get Ephesians or

Corinthians or any of the other books that we read, that it's

not outside of the knowledge and authority of Jesus that the

Bible was written. It was within the authority of

the trial and God that we get the scriptures that we have.

So to make this argument that somehow by Jesus, not implicitly

without you having to work through Matthew 19 implicitly

just writing it out for us, meaning that it's somehow OK,

It's basically saying that Jesus is somehow greater or lesser to

that of the rest of the Trinity, which folds the entire Christian

faith in on his head. The last thing I like to say in

this argument in response to those that bring this up is

this. The Bible is a book of many

books, but of 1 main story. The Bible is a book of many

books but of 1 main story. So you cannot isolate the

teachings of Jesus from the teachings of the Old Testament

or the apostles of the New Testament.

Because it is through the Old Testament that we get to the

gospel in the presence of Jesus walking in history and in time

in the New Testament. And it's through his

resurrection and ascension that we then get the early works of

the church and the writings that lead us all the way up to

Revelation, which is the return of Christ when he comes back to

set everything that is broken right once again.

So these are arguments that though they may sound good on

the surface, you as a follower of Jesus should be able to

gently and kindly be able to ask to answer and respond.

Yes, Jesus addresses this. Yes, it is a big deal.

And no, it being mentioned only 6 times does not minimize its

authority over our life as a call for us to actually follow.

Do you know why that argument has so many, so much teeth?

Because in all the other things that are mentioned over and over

again in scripture, many of us in the church don't have heard

them and we don't practice them. So like, it talks more about

money. What are you doing with your

money? I mean, nice car, nice shot,

nice RV. Good to see that you're being

charitable to the poor. So all of a sudden your

malpractice becomes their reason for their continued malpractice.

I'm telling you that the only path forward with any kind of

voice, with any kind of reason in this conversation is going to

be your genuine devotion to God and your genuine repentance

before him. Because if we can't get, if we

can't normalize repentance here, then we cannot expect it to ever

become, to ever see revival out there, to ever see people who

are far from God coming in to a Savior who can receive us with

all of our. The second big argument that

comes up usually deals with Romans 1.

Romans 1 is one of those 6 verses.

I want to read it for you. But in Romans 1 verses 24 to 32,

Romans 1:24–32

Paul writes this. Therefore God gave them up up in

the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of

their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth

of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather

than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen. For this reason, God gave them

up to dishonorable passions for their women exchange natural

relations for those that are contrary in nature.

And the men likewise give up natural relations with women and

will consume a passion for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in

themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see it fit to acknowledge God, God gave

them up to a debase mind to do what ought not be done.

He allowed them not to feel or experience conviction anymore.

Perhaps this is one of the graces of God.

And the common grace that we experience is that God at times,

whenever you refuse to acknowledge sin, a sin will give

you over to that sin so that you live in it without any kind of

conviction that wells up inside of you or cause you to anything

greater that the Bible would call greater through you.

And so you end up just ignoring it and living your entire life

blind to what God's actually called you to.

Verse 20. They were filled with all manner

of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent,

haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice

such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give

approval to those who practice. And let me be very clear about

the context of Romans 1. Romans 1 is a big mirror that

catches everybody who is not Jesus in a moral conundrum.

So if you look at Romans 1 and you take that excerpt and that's

all you read and that's all you walk away with, you come out

arrogant but not holy. Paul's entire thesis from Romans

1/2 is to get us to Romans 323. Romans 1 and 2 is to say no

matter what your ethnic background is and no matter what

your sin desire is, you are all at the end of the day sinners in

need of a Savior. Romans 323 for all of sin and

fall short of the glory of God. Can we Amen that Amen.

So we're all on the equal playing field by the end of

Romans 323. That is context within that.

Now, here's some of the things that people try to do with

Romans One, to try and revision it.

And this is happening today in many churches.

Number one, I've heard this argument, read it in a book.

Paul is not addressing, and this is the argument.

Paul is not addressing monogamous homosexual practice,

but pederasty. What Paul is doing, it's the

argument he's not addressing like one man and one man being

married and living faithfully with each other and enjoying

that relationship and serving God together.

That's not what God is or what Paul and God ultimately through

Paul is addressing. Instead, he's addressing

something called pederasty. And I've seen this argument and

here's what pederasty was. It's very gross, but essentially

pederasty within the Roman culture was where a young 11 or

12 year old boy will be paired with an adult male to learn

about what it means to be a man in Roman society and that man

would then take advantage. This is pedophilia of that child

and would rape that child over and over again.

Now the art. This is absolutely condemnable

and disgusting and we can all agree to that.

Correct, But this is not what Paul is actually mentioning in

the text off of 2 clear context clues #1 he doesn't just mention

men but he also mentions women in pederasti was only practice

in between men and boys. It was not practice women to

women culturally. So to say that he's addressing

that issue is malpractice of the text because you're not seeing

that he also addresses it on either side of same sex

attraction. The second problem here, and

this is a big revisionist movement that's going on is they

try to say, well, that's what he was addressing when he's talking

about men and boys, but the word in Greek is men to men.

Two consulting, consenting adults who join into this

because of the desires that they have for each other.

So clearly put this as blunt as I can be.

It's just not there in the text. The, the, the out to give some

kind of out or to make some kind of it's not there in Romans.

One, you don't have to like it. It doesn't matter what we

necessarily think as far as opinions of it.

It's, it's just not there. I've studied it, I've read

everything I can read about it. I've read it in Greek, I've read

it in English. I read across multiple English

translate. You cannot get around what it's

saying. The second big argument, and

this is even a bigger stretch I think with Romans 1 is some will

argue that Paul was trying to directly call out an individual

and not call out others, that this is really in context just

Paul calling out one person. The problem is Romans 1 is a

mirror for all people and in other areas you have no

precedent where Paul is calling someone out where he doesn't

mention them by name. For instance, when Paul calls

out Peter in Galatians 2 chapter 2 verses 11 to 13, guess what he

writes in Galatians 211 to 13? Peter, like Paul wasn't very

southern. He wasn't passive.

He wasn't in the bless your heart cultural of going well,

you know, like I, I want to call this out, but I don't want to

call them out by like, that's not what happened.

The Bible. In the Bible, when they call

someone out, they wrote it in the letter.

So in order for you to make that argument, Paul would have to

break from his entire writing style that we have samples of

over the rest of the New Testament #1 and, and the

argument usually is something like this.

It's usually, well, what Paul was actually talking about was

an emperor named Gaius Caligula who reigned 4 years, who did,

who is known for explicit sexual misconduct.

And Paul is saying that this is who he's.

And some are saying this is who Paul is calling out, that he's

not calling out other people. The problem is there's no

precedent for in the scripture, and the argument just falls in

on its head. It takes more fate to jump there

than it does to read the Scripture and understand it at

face value. So you have Romans one.

It's one of the big objections to the traditional view, and

it's one that we need to be able to defend humbly and graciously.

The third big objection that comes up frequently is this.

I call it The Beatles theology. It's if two people are in love,

then shouldn't we let it be? All right, just let it be now,

stepping out of the what we're talking about at the moment,

right and same sex attraction, let me first just let me tell

you why I don't believe in let it be philosophy on just about

anything that comes from a human's mouth.

How many of you trust when your middle schooler comes home and

tells you that they're in love, that this is going to last?

But they'll tell you up and down, I'm in love with them.

This is this is it, you know, forever.

And they're up there in the room writing down, you know, J Rod

and Bon qui qui forever, like over and over again, right?

Because you know that within a few days of school drama, that

relationship will go from forever to tomorrow.

Now, let me be very clear to you.

There are many people who come into my office wanting to get

married and I'll look at them the same way that you look at

middle schoolers and high schoolers.

Why? Because I've been around you

long enough to learn that you're going to stand up here at this

altar on your wedding day and you're going to start going,

man, I love you more than the moon and the stars and money

and, and it doesn't matter what happens, girl, even if you get

chunky, I'm going to love you forever.

My love for you is unbreakable. It's unshakeable.

It's unlike any other love in human history. 3 weeks later,

you're in my office and you're like, I don't, I don't love her.

I think I made a really big mistake.

So forgive me if I'm a little cynical whenever you tell me

that your desire is unshakeable because I've seen human desires.

This is a human problem. Shake left and right and up and

down all over the place #2 within this argument, let me be

very clear. Many people will then recite an

argument or defense of this for Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 to

Matthew 22:36–40

40. And it's this teacher which is

the greatest commandment in the law.

And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all

your heart, with all your mind. Excuse me?

With all your heart and with all your soul and with all your

mind. This is the greatest and 1st

commandment. A second is like it you shall

love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend

the law and the prophets. So people be like Jesus just

said love. People just got to be loving.

It's a very interesting argument and what many people think is

that somehow the commandments or the Old Testament law gets

dismissed in the statement Jesus made.

But what he actually does is he sums up the entire 10

commandments in 2 verses or in a verse 2 statements.

Vertically love the Lord your God deals with commandments 1 to

4. You shall love.

No, you should have no other gods before me.

You shall make no idols. You shall not take the name of

the Lord in vain and keep the Sabbath day and make it holy.

That's the vertical commandment. So what is what is Jesus

essentially saying? Well, what's most important is

commandments one through 4 and then right on the heels of that

five through 10, because five through 10 deal with

horizontally you loving your neighbor.

What's 5? Honor your father and mother.

That's the moment every single one of us realized we were

sinners. You shall not murder.

You should not commit adultery. You should not steal.

You should not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You should not covet. Now how does this relate to same

sex attraction and being loving? It relates because though you

may have a desire or I have a desire, it doesn't excuse it

from the ethical law that God has given us.

You can't revision it, rewrite it, or write it outside of it.

You can't get around that. What's So the question we have

to ask yourself is this is can Jesus be loving and disagree

with me? Can Jesus be loving and call

what I desire sinful? These are hard questions because

you're trying what the key is. The key in the entire argument

in the discussion is you have to separate Jesus from the ethics

of the Bible in order for any of this to be able to stand.

Or you have to deal with the fact that Jesus love is the kind

of love that sees you in your desires that the Bible calls sin

and still comes and dodged for you anyway.

You have to deal with the fact that Jesus love sees you in your

faults and still chooses to invite you into community with

Him, sees you in your imperfections and still invites

you to follow Him, sees you in your doubt and still commissions

you. Though you are a hypocrite and

you were someone who falls short daily to, they'll still be

empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into the nations and proclaim

the gospel that is outside of us.

And it's good news for all of us.

So if two people are in love, then shouldn't we just let it B.

Well, the the problem is, is the scripture will call us in love

to teach the Bible. And that's problematic for some

of us that want to revision this and separate Jesus from its

ethics. The final objection is one of

the biggest ones that has a lot of credence on college campuses

right now. It was made famous in an episode

of The West Wing. Anybody ever seen The West Wing?

And it's essentially this question of why do you pick and

choose? Essentially, it's well, you're

going to highlight that part of the Bible and bring it up to

come after me, but you then ignore that part of the Bible or

you don't adhere to that part of the Bible.

So if you're going to ignore that part of the Bible, but

you're not going to know this part of the Bible, like why do

you pick and choose? Basically, it's a how did, how

dare you sit on a moral high horse and that like you can tell

me what's right and wrong. And this argument since first

year freshman in college, stuttering and stammering back.

And it all started at the end this episode of The West Wing.

And it's an episode where the president walks in and there's

this conservative reporter who's known for making conservative

thoughts and ideas and very terrible ways on an

argumentative and unhelpful ways on radio walks in.

Everyone stands up, but they make sure that she, this

character is sitting down. She idly enough has a southern

accent. I was offended at that, right?

So she stays seated. The president comes in and

recognizes her, ask her her name.

They have an interaction. He asked her if he she believes

that homosexuality is a sin. She quotes Leviticus 18.

And then the president goes off on this rent.

I want to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here.

I'm interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery.

A sanction in Exodus 21 Seven. She's a Georgetown sophomore.

She speaks fluent Italian. Always clear the table when it

was her turn will be a good price for her.

While thinking about that, can I ask another, my chief of staff,

Leo McGarry insist on working on the Sabbath?

Exodus 35 two. Clearly it says we he should be

put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill

him myself or is it OK to call the police?

Here's one that's really important because we've got a

lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig

makes 1 unclean Leviticus 11/7. If they promised to wear gloves.

Can the Washington Redskins still play football?

Can Notre Dame? Can West Point?

Does the whole town really have to be together to stole my

brother John for planting different crops side by side?

Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing

garments made of two different threads?

Think about those questions, would you?

And immediately this gave ammo for the LGBTQ community to come

back and fire in an answer in a way that most Christians,

literally, you hear you have that come up to a especially a

freshman on a college campus. Usually the answer is so yeah,

yeah. And I don't really know how to

answer that question now. Let me walk you through how you

can graciously answer this question.

This comes out of Leviticus 1822.

That's what's highlighted. Why do you pick and choose?

That's where we see if you'll flip there with me.

Let me flip there really quick. Genesis X is Leviticus Numbers.

There we go, the Vicus 1822. This is one of the six that were

originally talked about. They're known as the club

reverses because we've been careless in the way that we've

taught them. And honestly, sometimes they've

been taught well and they're still not received because

sometimes it doesn't matter what you do when it comes to speaking

the truth. When we're confronted with the

Word of God, we either repent or rerun.

That's human nature, every single one of us.

When I'm confronted with the Word of God, I repent or I run.

It's one of the two. Leviticus 1822 it says this.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman.

It is an abomination. So that's the quote, that's the

line there that usually leads into the pick and choose

argument and discussion. So how do you address this?

The first thing I do is I kindly point out their hypocrisy.

And this is you got to be careful about this.

But I point out to them, OK, you're saying I pick and choose,

but let me ask you this question.

Leviticus chapter 19, verse 11 says this.

Leviticus 19:11

You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely.

You should not lie to one another.

Do you agree that those are good things?

If the answer is yes, then you pick and choose to.

Verse 12 You should not swear by my name falsely and so profane

the name of the Lord your God. I'm the Lord.

You should not oppress your neighbor or rob him.

Do you agree that that's good? If so, you just pick and chose.

The wages of a higher worker should not remain with you all

night until the morning. Verse 14 You shall not curse the

deaf or put stumbling blocks before the blind, but you shall

fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord.

Do you agree that that's a good thing?

If the answer is yes, then you pick and choose.

You should not do injustice in court.

You should not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.

Do you agree that that's a good thing?

And the answer is you pick and choose.

And some will say, well, I don't.

I don't believe in that Bible. That's not my word.

That's your word. I'm using your word against you.

You said you believe that. I don't believe that.

Here's the problem. You weren't born before the

Bible. And the way that we got to the

Christian, to the worldview and the ethics that we hold to

today, that it's not good to steal, murder and lie against

each other, You know where that came from?

The Bible, it was set in a Christian worldview.

Now some people argue that those are just things that we know

innately. I know this because I'm just a

person. I don't need the Bible to tell

me that's a lie. Still in Cheat and the answer is

yes. In Romans, one speaks exactly to

that because God wrote his moral law on your heart.

So even though you're trying to skirt around God, the problem is

the Bible keeps pinning you down and going, no, you cannot derive

this apart from my word and you cannot derive this apart from my

creation, me putting my a Maggio day on you, which has imprinted

you with these moments where you see injustice and go, that's not

right. That didn't come from your own

origination. It came from being made in my

image and having my law written on your heart.

So the first thing I like to do in the conversation is I like to

point out that they pick and choose, which then leads me to

the second part of the discussion usually, which is

this. I confess this.

I know why and how I pick and choose.

Do you I know why and how I pick and choose?

I know why we've decided not to greet each other with a holy

kiss beyond the complaints that we get in the complaint box,

right? I know why we don't put people

to death to plant crops side by side today.

I know why and how I'm picking and choosing.

Do you know why and how you're picking and choosing?

Let me explain how I know why and how I pick and choose.

I took this class called Hermeneutics.

Every one of your pastors had to take one of these classes.

Hermeneutics is a practice that teaches you the knowledge of

interpreting the Bible and understanding its literary

context both within the culture and today.

And when you study hermeneutics, took this from Doctor Minot, you

learn that there are three types of law in the Old Testament.

There's three types of law. There's moral law, civil law,

and ceremonial law. There's moral law, There's civil

law and there's ceremonial law. And you can deduct this very

easy by reading and actually thinking.

So as you read through this, what you discover is there's a

moral law. Moral law transcends time and

culture, and regardless of where we're at in history, it's true.

An example of this would be the 10 commandments, right?

Still true. I think we still agree that it's

true that it's not good to commit adultery, right?

Like usually your spouse doesn't come home and go been committing

adultery and like, oh, it's OK Culturally that's acceptable

now, even though statistically it happens more than it should,

right? Usually you're going to be a

little bit indignant. That's not right.

That's an injustice. Where does that come from?

Moral law. That's what God has written on

the hearts of humanity. The second kind of law is civil

law. That's a God-given law to Israel

in the Middle East within a set time period to teach them how to

function as a chosen people within the context of culture.

Civil law. God-given law to Israel in the

Middle East within a set time and period to teach them how to

function as a chosen people within the context of the

culture. It was God's way through the law

making them distinct amongst their neighbors.

How is a believer distinct amongst his neighbors?

Use your brains. How is a believer distinct

amongst their neighbors? If it ain't Jesus, it's probably

the Holy Spirit. This is the distinctive marker

for the believer making sense to anybody, outward appearance and

obedience to the law. This is how you kept it as a

distinct people from the rest of the world.

And we see that some examples of this are on the laws around

clothing and outer appearance. What you're to wear, not wear,

how you're to wear, not to wear it.

Single thread, multiple threads, one kind of content or multiple

like like this is all law. That was to distinguish Israel

within that. It's a cultural.

That's a cultural law within time and place with the civil

law. The third ceremonial laws, let

me explain this. These were given to instruct

Israel in their worship within the temple.

Some examples of these kinds of laws are purification laws, how

you had to go through a purification process before you

went into the temple, even some of the dietary laws and how that

plays into it, which actually is a civil law.

So you have civil, ceremonial and morals.

Is this making sense to anybody? OK, ceremonial laws, even if we

wanted to practice them, cannot be practiced today because

there's no temple to go to. The temple now is you.

God took what raised Jesus from the dead and put it in in you.

So there's no more temple that we're worried about cleansing

ourself up. However, there is a warning in

First Corinthians 6 that we're to have a high reverence for the

temple of God and what we do with it since God has put His

spirit inside of it. Am I making sense still?

Anybody still listening to this? So for the Christian believer,

we have now been filled with the Holy Spirit and we now have

become the temple. And as believers, we should

always want to discuss the Bible.

And the beautiful thing that has happened anytime this discussion

comes up is we've been given an invitation to talk Scripture

with people, which leads me to the third step.

And this is the most important step.

You point out their hypocrisy. You point out that you pick and

choose, but you have reasoning behind how you pick and choose.

It's not just what I feel is right or what I feel is wrong,

right? Which then brings you to the

third one, which is this. This is very important.

You ready? You get off your moral high

horse and you admit to them that you are a hypocrite.

This is the this is the difference between articulating

to make a point versus articulating to make a

difference. You get off your moral high

horse and you point out your own hypocrisy.

That means you call out your own sin.

You point to your desperate need for Jesus.

You point out your own desires that the Bible has called sinful

and your struggle to allow through the Scripture them to be

put to death. Got a myriad of pages here.

You communicate your need for a moral law and standard hear this

that exists outside of you so that you don't minimize your sin

while you amplify others. And you communicate your need to

know what God says is righteous and unrighteous because you are

a hypocrite. What does this do?

It allows us to be human. Some of the most painful

conversations I've had with friends and family members are

people who have same sex attraction and they wrestle with

what the scriptures teach and what that means for them and

this desire and they feel affirmed now by the majority of

the world. That's fine.

There's nothing that's there, but they still have this

conviction that they cannot rid themselves of.

And some people will call it from the world's perspective,

just built in guilt. Now let me be very clear.

Guilt is the same voice as condemnation.

Condemnation always tells you it's hopeless and there is no

hope. And a lot of my friends that

want to know the Lord or want to get, want to study Scripture and

get this right, a lot of them, they feel uniquely damned

because of this desire. Because the church has joined in

with the voice of guilt and condemnation instead of allowing

the Spirit to be the voice of conviction.

Because the voice of conviction is always an invitation.

And that invitation invites you to a new way of living,

empowered by the Holy Spirit. No, it doesn't immediately take

away every sinful desire. No, it doesn't mean that it's

just going to, that the desires you have just walk out the door

and leave you alone. Yes, it means that Jesus grace

is sufficient for you to meet you where you are and to walk

with you to the future that he defines and leads you into.

And it's such a painful conversation to have because I

want them to know that the grace I receive is not unique to the

grace that they can receive. It's not like the grace of Jesus

is deep enough to reach me and my own heterosexual desires and

the simple desires that the Bible calls simple sexually that

I hold to as well and have to repent of and acknowledge and

put accountability around my life in that that I'm no

different than you when it comes to my need for grace.

But the grace that reached me is a sufficient grace to reach you.

And it's so frustrating to connect the dots because there's

such a disconnect that seems to exist.

So if I could, I want to implore the church and the way that we

had these conversations with four takeaways, 4 steps that I

think we got to hold to. Number one, call out your own

sin. Until we normalize repentance,

we we should not expect us to have good gospel conversations

in the community around us. Listen, they're always going to

highlight the extremes and the hypocrites and the the loud and

the annoying and the boisterous in the news, OK?

But we are to be humble and repentant before God.

So let's normalize our own sin. Let's not normalize our own sin.

Let's normalize repentance. That could have been a bad take

away. Normalize my sin.

What did you learn in church? Today?

I'm going to normalize my sin. I'm sorry.

Call out your own sin. Let's normalize your penance in

this place #2 humble yourself before God.

When you're humble before God, you don't have to be arrogant to

others. There's nothing to prove my

identity and my value is rooted in my relationship with Jesus.

So I'm not trying to out noise you in an argument.

I'm not trying to win an argument.

I'm trying to love Jesus and follow him.

And I'm devoted to him before I'm devoted to the opinion of

man or the popularity of what people think about the message

of the gospel of Jesus. So call out your own sin.

Humble yourself before God #3 be loving by being truthful.

This is a tension we have to walk in.

Love and truth are not 2 coins. They're the same side of one

coin. I've heard many people go, well

I'm just being truthful when they yelled at them with the

bullhorn. You're not being loving.

You've missed an entire side of the coin.

It's through relationship around tables and in conversations that

we most often see change and transformation.

It's what Jesus did. It's why Jesus ate with sinners,

set with the ill repute, and was looked down upon for doing it.

But how did change happen? By Jesus yelling at a woman

walking to a well, or by him sitting at the well and

conversating with her? Many of you are into the

conversation. You had the relationship.

But if I can be very direct to you, you're a coward.

You're ashamed of the gospel. And that, my friends, is a bit

more heartbreaking thing than anything else.

At the end of Romans one, what does Paul say at the end of all

of this? From not ashamed of the gospel

of Jesus Christ, every word of it.

Yet for many of us we we've walked in extremes and

completely missed the point and rendered ourselves completely

ineffective. And we've called ourselves

loving to a community that we've not been truthful to.

And my friends that an eternity is not loving but it is hateful

#4 Daily fully devote yourself to God.

I was asked this question by someone very close to me who has

a family member who is in a same sex relationship and I love

their I love everyone in the family.

And they said how dare you tell me that if my family member

wants to be true to God that they can never have the kind of

relationship that you have in a heterosexual sense.

How dare you tell me that they've got to basically forsake

that if they want to live in obedience to God.

And with tears in my eyes, I look back and humbly

articulated, how dare you tell me that the Savior can't demand

that and even more from us. How dare you tell me that in the

scriptures it teaches that if your love for the Savior, isn't

it such a level that it looks like hatred for everybody else

in comparison? That that same Savior would not

call you to have desires that you call good that the Bible

calls sinful and call you to forsake and trust Him in those

desires so that he can lead you into who He's called you to be?

How dare you act as if Jesus deserves cheap devotion that

ends at the mark of your desire or ends at the of what you think

is good. How dare you tell me, not being

able to see all of creation and all of time, that Jesus doesn't

know what is best for his children and his people and the

best way to walk with them even in their struggles and in their

failures through His grace to the moment where they are

sanctified and glorified before God in the very end of times.

How dare you tell me that in temporary time He's not worthy

of forsaking all riches and all relationships and all things for

the pursuit of Him? How dare you tell me that the

Gospels taught anything less than that?

Because Luke 923 says that if anyone wants to come after

Jesus, he must daily wake up and die to himself, take up his

cross and follow him and follow him.

And how dare us as a church send that message out to the world

when we ourselves haven't been our own daggum niece and been

devoted in the same way. Have a friend who is in ministry

and he and I talk off and on and he approached me one day and he

said I don't know if you know this but I've always struggled

with same sex attraction. I said well it's kind of obvious

and we started laughing because we've been friends for a while.

He said yeah, you would think God when he gave me an

effeminate voice and kind of, you know, more effeminate kind

of mannerisms, they'd be at least giving me like a masculine

passion. His biggest passion in life is

cheerleading. He could out tumble any girl

I've ever met. We were talking back and forth

one day and I said, you know, like, do you ever feel like

Jesus is somehow like shortchanged you or given you a

an uneven deck? And in the fact that this is a

desire that you have and it's kind of public and a lot of

people recognize it and you know, they look at you and a lot

of people assume things about you and you know, you can't see

having to deal with that. And I'm like weeping, asking him

this. And he looks at me and says, I

would give so much more to follow the Savior that I read

about in the Bible. You have no clue.

It's my joy to lay this desire aside and pursue God.

It's my joy to know Jesus in that way.

And can I tell you the most marginalized voice in the world

right now? It's his voice because everyone

else gets a platform. But if you dissent from public

opinion and you speak up like he speaks up, you're you're soon to

be a part of the bigoted agenda when all he is is a fully

devoted follower of Christ. He loves the Lord and he's not

ashamed or cowardly enough to to hide in it.

Instead, he walks in the boldness of the light, allowing

Jesus to transform and change him into doing so.

I mean, he's he's a a great tool in the hand of God.

God used him for incredible things for his Kingdom.

But but we don't want to hear his voice.

We dismiss that voice publicly. Why?

Because that voice may challenge us in our belief.

That voice may call us to holiness.

That voice may bridge into a community that that we want to

deconstruct the bridge down to listen church.

We have no message if we ourselves are are not

acknowledging the hypocrisy of our own lives.

So today, as the band comes, I want to invite you before we

take communion, to acknowledge your sin before God, to humble

yourself before Him, to repent, to repent, to make it normal.

Why? Because the Savior died and bled

so that we in our struggles and in our weakness could, could

know that we can always come home.

No matter the details of the prodigal run, you can come home.

For those of you that are struggling with our living in

same sex attraction, I want you to know at Resurrection Church,

we love you. We love you, absolutely love

you. And I apologize on behalf of the

church for the stupid things we've said and done for acting

like this could be magically just prayed out of you.

No, but in the same breath, I pray that as we learn to, as we

love you, I pray that you would give us grace as we learn

together what the Scriptures teach and what they mean.

And together we could walk together.

You are absolutely welcome in this church.

There's a home for you here. And I promise you that week in

and week out, as we preach to the Bible, it the Bible is going

to disagree with everyone in here in the way that we live our

lives. But I also promise you as the

lead pastor that I will continue to take the stance as being the

lead repenter and I'll repent first.

I'll go first here. And in my brokenness I will

acknowledge it. And I will beg for God to

empower me to overcome my sin as He empowers you to do the same.

And it will not be easy, but I promise you I will not judge

you, but I will humble myself before the Lord.

And in doing so, we will walk together as He makes us into the

people He's called us to be by His power and not man's

derivative. My prayers that you find this

house to be a home, a place where you can come in in any

condition and know that you were truly loved by a Savior who

demonstrates that love by loving us while we were still in our

sin. It won't be easy, and the world

will try and pull us apart, and they will continue to tell us

that if we do not affirm, we cannot be family.

But I promise you that the blood makes us a stronger kind of

family than anything in this world could ever make us.

So Church, the whole church, Acknowledge your sin before God,

repent of your sin and may you find His grace to be deep and

wide to meet us where we are and a spirit to be strong enough to

meet us there and lead us to where we aren't.

In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.