A couple weeks ago, I preached from the Book of Judges, chapters 17-21. It's the end of book, where the reader is exposed to the sin of Israel at its peak. The main point is obvious--Israel needs a good and godly king. More than anything, Israel needs God to come and change their hearts.
One of the most distrubing scenes in these dark chapters is that of the men of Gibeah who demand to have sex with a man. Their demands are pretended in the chapter as sinful. This raises all sorts of questions about our culture's view of homosexuality today.
What follows are my comments to the congregation I serve, in light of this text, on the topic of homosexuality and same-sex marriage:
We saw in Judges 19:22 that the desire of the men of Gibeah was for intimacy with other men. This is presented by the author of Judges as evidence that the people had abandoned God and God’s Law, which prohibited homosexuality and established the pattern of marriage as that between a man and a woman.
In the church today, there are men and women who are tempted in the area of same-sex attraction. This temptation is not a sin. Giving into this temptation is sinful. It will not do to say, “God made me this way and therefore I am not accountable for my feelings or my actions.” We are all accountable for our feelings and our actions. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that we are to “take every thought captive to obey Christ,” and certainly that includes every sexual thought. By God’s grace, we can take such thoughts captive.
If you are tempted this way, you are not a freak; you are a sinner, like everyone sitting in this room. Your temptation does not make you special; it makes you normal. But we are called by God to resist temptation and to fight for holiness. You must resist and you must fight. We must all repent of a lifestyle of sexual sin, be it in the arena of homosexuality or heterosexuality. Without repentance there is no forgiveness and everlasting life. You can be a Christian even if you struggle with these temptations. But if you have given into sexual sin, if you refuse to fight it, whatever that sin may be, Scripture gives you no room to call yourself a Christian.
If you are tempted now, if you are struggling now, you don’t have to struggle alone. That is why God ordained the church. Talk to me, talk to an elder. Let us shepherd you with full confidence in the mercy and grace of God.
What about same-sex marriage?
We should be thankful to live in a country where the debate is tolerated. We should humbly but clearly advocate for the public definition of marriage as an exclusive and permanent union between one man and one woman. We should strive to elect leaders who understand that abandoning this definition is not in the best interests of children who are best served by a mom and a dad. Nor is same-sex marriage in the best interests of society-at-large, which has for centuries been built upon this definition of marriage.
We should pray for those who disagree. We should do so recognizing that while an amendment to the constitution will preserve something we rightly value, it will not change one human heart. A nation of people who are hostile to the God of the Bible will inevitably be hostile to his ways. They need to hear the Gospel, see the Gospel lived out, and urged to submit their lives to the God of the Gospel.
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