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Title: What Is Shameful
In our society today there is a lot of talk about homosexuality. And the main argument for homosexuality goes something like this: “If I can prove to you that I was born a homosexual than you have no recourse against me. If I can convince you that it how I was created, then you can’t hold me responsible, because it’s your God who made me this way.”
The problem here is that far too many believers have spent countless hours arguing the opposite, that we are not made this way, that homosexuality is a choice, and therefore, a sin.
Let’s look at the situation from a Biblical standpoint and see how Paul might answer this debate today. And by the way, it was an issue, even back then, or Paul would not have referenced it. We far too often make the mistake of thinking that we’ve come up with “new” sin. Think of it this way, if we could come up with “new” sin, then when Jesus said that he’d been tempted in all ways as we were, that would make him a liar. Sin has always existed, and Paul’s generation was just as proficient in sinning as we are.
V24 “therefore” Last week we looked at the first consequence of God to man for denying him, and that was God “darkened their foolish hearts” and “professing to be wise, they became fools.”
Today we will look at consequence number two and three.
Consequence number two: God gives them up to uncleanness and the lusts of their hearts.
“Uncleanness” Greek=akatharsia {ak-ath-ar-see’-ah}
1) uncleanness
a) physical
b) in a moral sense: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living
1) of impure motives
v25 (read) What a powerful verse. What is sin really? Especially in reference to lust, sin is the willing exchange of Joy in God (which is eternal) for joy in physical pleasure (which is fleeting.) We fall for the age old trick that these types of pleasures can satisfy…and they can…for a moment. But the tell-tale sign of a physical sin is this: it must be repeated for the effect to occour, it’s pleasures never last.
Compare that to Joy in God. I’ve only become a Christian once. Once. And that joy is there whenever I dwell upon it, whenever I choose to give God glory for the day, I am soon filled with the joy of the reality of his presence in my life.
I’ve heard Christians say that Moses had it easier than us because God talked directly to him. Maybe, but Moses then waited for years on end before getting to talk to God again. You and I have the gift of the Holy Spirit, he moves upon our heart in a way that Moses wasn’t able to experience in his lifetime on Earth.
John Piper says something magnificently relevant and powerful concerning sins of lust and the flesh. He says you will never, ever be able to control of defeat sins of lust through discipline. It will never happen. Because we were designed for pleasure. But pleasure in God’s will!
The only way to defeat the sins of the flesh is to acknowledge that the pleasures they bring a real, but then seek a greater pleasure, a greater joy, and eternal joy in Christ. That statement alone has caused me to rethink my approach to holiness over and over and over again. My thinking, before I heard Piper
explain that, was that I had to be disciplined to avoid such pleasure, but why not recognize that there is such a more fulfilling, lasting pleasure in a relationship with Christ where he wants and desires to fulfill all of our desires in his will. Sexual pleasure is not un-biblical, it just has to be within the context of God’s sovereign plan…namely, with your spouse! And that pleasure is far greater than any we could seek to be fulfilled by in this world!
Consequence Three: God gave them over to their vile passions.
V26-27 So now we get down to it. Through these verses you are about to hear you pastor espouse Biblically how ridiculous homosexuality is.
The key comes from the repeated word of “nature.” We see nature and “natural use” used throughout these two verses in a way that shoots holes in every theory that suggests that homosexuality could have any legitimacy.
“God created me this way”
How can God create you against something that is natural? Nature is, simply put, the way things are until we screw them up. Go out to the woods, you are in nature, until we build a shopping mall. How could this genius God create all of this and then make some of you want to be with each other. You have no way to continue life.
“But we can fix that now through adoption and even science.”
Oh, yeah…that’s natural! God made you that way, I’m sure.
It doesn’t surprise me that we have homosexuals, it is the natural course of what will happen to men and women when they turn from God. Frankly, I’m surprised there are not more homosexuals. This race, minus a few, has altogether turned away from God and become exactly what the word said they would when what happened: “When God turned them over to themselves.”
You see, I started this morning by suggesting that believers have missed the boat a bit when we argue against homosexuality, and this is what I mean by that. Let’s say someone’s nature is to a homosexual. So what? It’s still sin. My nature, before I was a believer, may not have been to be a homosexual, but it was to be a liar, a fraud, a cheater, an emotional abuser of women, an arrogant, prideful, insecure showoff who had no more fear of God than I did fear of my own father.
We get so caught up in arguing that homosexuals should be more normal or natural. None of us are normal or natural, the only people who achieved that were Adam and Eve before the fall and Jesus Christ himself!
Homosexuality is a sin. And you know what? So is not tithing. So is telling a white lie. If God came in here and made all the sinner and all the homosexuals stand up, we’d be standing together.
You all love me, despite my sin. I teach you, and model for you (hopefully) how to love a sinner. Yet rail against homosexuality like these people are demon possessed. Is that how Jesus would treat them? I know he’d be honest with them about their sin, and we should be too. I know he wouldn’t sugar coat the truth of such a lifestyle, and neither should we. But I also think he’d let them sit at his feet hear his teachings, and love that person in prayer, fellowship, and in joy.
The big question is not are we born this way or that. The big question is we are all born as sinners, and most of us have lustful addictions, how do we reconcile our sin with a perfect God? The grace of Jesus Christ. And how do we reconcile to others who have yet to see the truth of the Gospel? The grace of Jesus Christ.