Apologetics Archives - Christ Church

Biblical Sexuality (Troy)

Grace Sensing on January 14, 2024

SERMON TEXT

Genesis 2:24-25

INTRODUCTION

From Andrew DeBartolo, Director of Operations at Liberty Coalition Canada, “On Sunday January 14th, 2024, Liberty Coalition Canada would exhort you to preach a sermon focused on a Biblical sexual ethic and God’s good design for marriage. We hope to have thousands of pastors worldwide participate in this initiative. We believe the Lord will use this united effort to both declare the sovereign Lordship of Christ over His Church and transform many lives through the life-changing power of the Word of God.” And so this morning we will take up the charge and unite with our other brothers and sisters across the globe to discuss this very important subject, biblical sexuality. First we will begin by asking, “How does the world define sexuality?” Secondly, we will discuss what the Bible teaches about sexuality. And lastly, we will answer objections from the gay Christian movement, those who teach it’s ok to be gay and Christian.

WHAT DOES THE WORLD BELIEVE ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY?

I’m going to focus my efforts on a particular segment of society, mainly those who are irreligious, agnostic, or anti-religious. And the reason for this is the difficulty level. When it comes to the big questions—”What is the meaning of life?” and “How did we get here?”—those who already affirm a higher power are much less squeamish about these topics. They believe that they have the truth, and proselytizing is on their mind as well. There’s a higher probability that they will be amenable to discussing these deeper topics. But with the irreligious person, it’s not uncommon to simply be stonewalled. They say, “Oh, I don’t talk about religion.” So the barrier to entry is much higher in these cases. But, God may put an atheist in your path one day, and maybe it’s an atheist who isn’t opposed to having a conversation. So when I say, “what the world believes about sexuality”, it is this type of person that I have in mind.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT HUMAN SEXUALITY?

Scripture References: Gen 2 / Lev 18 / Lev 20 / Rom 1 / 1 Cor 6 / 1 Tim 1

What are our foundational principles as Christians that inform our view of what a man and a woman is? Let’s start in Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. God created everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th. The Psalmist says, “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.” Job says, “…ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?

ANSWERING OBJECTIONS FROM THE “GAY CHRISTIAN” MOVEMENT

If you condemn homosexuality as sinful, why don’t you condemn those who eat shellfish or those who wear mixed fabrics?
The condemnation in Romans 1 only refers to pederasty.
The word “unnatural” in Romans 1 simply connotes something “out of the ordinary,” not sinful.
μαλακοὶ and ἀρσενοκοῖται are ambiguous terms.
Aren’t we all sinners? Isn’t it the sin of pride to think that a gay Christian is less authentic than any heterosexual Christian?
The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is not about rampant sexual perversion, but rather, God destroyed them because they were inhospitable to strangers.
David and Jonathan were in a homosexual relationship.
Jesus is silent on homosexuality.
The emotional argument

CONCLUSION

Section 1: I want to talk about the importance of sola scriptura when it comes to these issues. Ultimately, on virtually every apologetic issue it comes down to defending sola scriptura. And the gay Christian movement is no exception.

Section 2: I want to go back to 1 Corinthians 6 because this is the crux of the issue. It says this, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

Biblical Sexuality Sunday 2024: The Pride of Women & Cowardice of Men (King’s Cross)

Grace Sensing on January 14, 2024

INTRODUCTION

In January 2022, the Canadian government enacted Bill C-4, effectively criminalizing Christian preaching, teaching, and counseling that upholds Biblical morality for human sexuality. Many pastors in Canada have determined to preach messages annually until the law is repealed and have invited American pastors to join them in proclaiming God’s truth about sexual sin and the gospel of grace.

The Bible teaches that when God judges a people, it often comes as a kind of suicidal sexual madness. Apart from God there is only sorrow and destruction, but sometimes when people defy God for a while, He turns them over to their degrading demands. Ezekiel describes the fruit of this “sexual liberation” as self-mutilation, murder of children, and complete destruction.

The Text: “Thus saith the Lord God; thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria…” (Ez. 23:32-49).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

God calls the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and the southern kingdom of Judah “harlots” (Ez. 23:3) whom He names “Aholah” and “Aholibah” (Ez. 23:4, 36), which mean “her tabernacle” and “my tabernacle in her.” Samaria had built her own sanctuaries in Dan and Bethel with golden calves (1 Kgs. 12:28-29), imported from her adultery with Egypt (Ez. 23:8), and God delivered her into the hands of her Assyrian lovers (Ez. 23:9-10). But God says that Judah (Aholibah) was even worse, lusting after the Assyrians and the Babylonians (Ez. 23:11-31).

So God declares that Judah will drink the same cup of judgment as her harlot sister (Ez. 23:32-33). The effect of God’s judgment will be a kind of violent, drunken madness that will result in them breaking the cup into pieces and cutting off their own breasts (Ez. 23:34-35). This madness also included murdering their own children in service to their idols, even while continuing to pretend Sabbath keeping and worship (Ez. 23:36-39). And even while these judgments were falling, Judah had the audacity to put on her makeup and get dolled up for additional rounds with other lovers (Ez. 23:40-44). God says that the just penalty for this kind of high-handed adultery is death so that all women may be taught not to act with such lewdness (Ez. 23:45-49).

THE FRUIT OF FEMINISM

While God is certainly using symbolic language to condemn the idolatry of His people, the conclusion is not at all symbolic: “Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness” (Ez. 23:48). While men were responsible for and contributed significantly to the idolatry of Israel and Judah, women played a significant role. There is perhaps a foreshadowing of this in the harlots who came before Solomon, fighting over a baby (1 Kgs. 3:16ff), but of course Solomon went after many women who turned his heart away from the Lord to other gods (1 Kgs. 11:1ff). Ahab married Jezebel who imported Baal worship into Samaria (1 Kgs. 16:31ff). By the time of Josiah’s reformation, the houses of the sodomites were “where the women wove hangings for the grove” (2 Kgs. 23:7). And there were many wicked mothers in Israel (1 Kgs. 15, 21:1, 19, 23:31, 36, 24:8, 18, 2 Chron. 24:7).

Feminism is no new heresy. It began in the Garden of Eden when Eve ignored God’s clear word and led her husband into temptation. And the fruit of feminism is elective mastectomies and abortion (Ez. 23:34, 37). Feminism always destroys women, children, families, and nations.

HANDED OVER TO OUR IDOLS

Ezekiel says that God gives wicked people over to this judgement. He causes them to drink this cup of madness (Ez. 23-32-34). Likewise, Romans 1 says that God gives people over to uncleanness and lusts to dishonor their own bodies with one another in sexual perversion because of their idolatry (Rom. 1:24-27). And what are those idols? They often incarnate in images of wealth and power, but they can often be boiled down to two fundamental sins: the pride of women and the cowardice of men.

Scripture says that Adam was not deceived in the garden, but the woman was deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), and this is one of the reasons given for why a woman may not have authority over a man in the church and be an elder or preacher (1 Tim. 2:9-14). What is it that causes a woman to dress immodestly, to try to use her body to manipulate men, or to usurp true masculine authority? It is the blindness and deception of pride – often pride in beauty, power, or smarts.

But if Adam was not deceived, then why did he accept his wife’s offer? The most likely answer is that he despaired. Instead of fighting the dragon for his wife, instead of offering to die for his wife, he chose the cowardly path. Husbands and fathers who do not protect their wives and daughters continue in the same path of cowardice as Adam. We live in a nation overrun by male fear of female sin. But we ought to take a lesson from King Asa whose own mother made an idol, and Asa removed her from being queen and destroyed her idol (2 Chron. 15:16).

APPLICATIONS

Jesus said He came for prostitutes and tax collectors. He did not come for those who think there is still time to fix things, to make some adjustments. He came for the blind who knew they had no hope of receiving their sight. He came for sinners who know they deserve the full wrath of God (Rom. 8:23). He came for those who know that pride and cowardice are destroying them.

God’s judgement is a cup: “Thus saith the Lord God; thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation” (Ez. 23:32-33). Our families, our churches, our nations are full of drunkenness and sorrow. The corpses of our babies make the Nazi’s look tame. And now we have young boys being given puberty blockers and girls mastectomies. And all of this is come upon us because of our sins.

When a culture gets to this point there is no going back. There is no political solution. There is no structural solution. We have driven the train off the tracks and into the canyon and we are in freefall. It is in this place of absolute inability that the announcement of the gospel comes.

And this is the announcement: Jesus Christ the Righteous drank the cup of God’s wrath for you. Either we will drink the cup or Christ has. The glorious news is that if you will surrender all your pride, all your cowardice before Him, if you will acknowledge that you deserve His judgment, you will find that He has already suffered in your place. And you are forgiven and set free to be the man or woman God created you to be.