sinners enter into a relationship with the Lord. And so we're going to take one more week because this is such a live set of issues, as you'll see, in our culture today, and think about our entrance into the gospel. And let me just say this, our culture's great need for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So Romans chapter 1, verse 21, this is God's Word. For although they, meaning humanity, 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. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served a creature rather than the Creator, Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. 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.
This is God's Word. Would you pray with me? Lord, we pray especially today as we look at this passage that You would illuminate Your Word, that You would allow us to see through the cultural framework that we have inherited around us to the shining light of the Word of God. Lord, we confess your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Amen.
Every year, men die of thirst surrounded by water. Every year. In fact, this has been going on not just this year, but this century. Not just this century, but this millennium. Not just this millennium, but all of human history. Men have died of thirst surrounded by water. And I'm talking, of course, of people shipwrecked on the ocean surrounded by water on every side, and yet unable to drink. But of course, some do. Some do. There was a study of a British physician, MacDonald Critchley, who made a study of how shipwrecked sailors can best survive being shipwrecked. Typically, it would be a number of days out on the ocean, but people would be looking for them, people would find them. And what was the difference? What was the best practice for those who had been shipwrecked out on the ocean? Well, he found that one of the easiest ways to die on the ocean is by drinking the saltwater around you. He found the following. He says that what happens when a very dehydrated person drinks seawater, there is immediate slaking of the thirst. You get thirsty, you're dehydrated, you're dying of thirst, You take a handful of the water. And here's the challenge. Immediately, your thirst is slaked. You feel better. You feel, ah. But he found it was followed quite soon by an exacerbation of thirst, meaning the thirst returns with a vengeance. And that requires still more copious drafts of water. So what happens is you begin drinking, your thirst returns, you drink more, the thirst returns, you drink more, the thirst returns. And because of the saltiness of the water, your body is not able to filter the salt out and it begins to add to your dehydration. He writes this, the victim then becomes silent and apathetic with a peculiar fixed and glassy expression in the eyes. And within an hour, or 2, delirium sets in. People begin hallucinating, but they've been drinking. Meaning, so here's what he found by some statistics, that only less than 10% of soldiers who were shipwrecked actually perished unless they drank the seawater. And when they did, they died. And so it became the best practice for bulletins to go out in World War II. Don't drink the seawater. And you think that's not necessary? Nobody needs to know that. Yes, they do. Because in the moment that you find yourself surrounded by water, dying of thirst, you start to think maybe it'll be okay. Maybe just a little bit.
Now, what I want to argue today is that our culture is dying and thirsting and drinking seawater and wondering why it's not slaking our thirst in the area of romance, sexuality, and gender.
We, friends, I have 2 goals today. Number one, to encourage us who are in Christ not to drink the seawater. And number two, to see the great need of our culture and why it's such a need and how they can be helped.
6 · Historical context of Roman sexual culture
So Romans chapter 1 is where we are. Now, it's helpful for you to know that the Roman culture was a seawater culture. Everyone around this church is drinking the seawater. This was a promiscuous culture, a deviant culture, a culture that baptized prostitution into religion and made it acceptable. And they are all looking at the Christians who are not drinking the seawater around them saying, you're foolish. You're repressed. You're backward. You have a weird little religion led by a crucified king. We're not going to listen to you.
7 · Establishes Paul's rhetorical posture as offensive rather than defensive
Similarly today our culture looks at us surrounded by seawater, not drinking it, and says, what's wrong with you? You must be repressed. You must be homophobic. You must be transphobic. You must be misogynistic. You must be fools. Now, here's the reality. Rather than Paul being on the defensive and saying, well, hey, hey, hey, hey, it's not like that. You know, listen, there's a lot of good things about Christianity and we can be accommodating and we can be helpful. He goes on the offensive. He says, no, you guys are the ones that are crazy. Your culture, and I would dare say our culture, is drinking seawater and wondering why it's not slaking our thirst.
8 · Cultural evidence from contemporary headlines cataloging widespread sexual dysfunction
I could go through the headlines all about 21st century America. I've read headlines this week. Dating is broken. Dating apps are broken. Hookup culture is broken. Modern marriage is broken. I tried polyamory and that was broken. I tried this lifestyle and that was broken. Everything is broken. And they think, well, maybe the next gulp of seawater will be where it's at. And it's not working.
9 · Restates the thesis with explicit Christological resolution
So our main idea today is this. Our sexually confused culture is the one drinking seawater. And only Christ can truly satisfy our thirst for life. That's what we're going to see in Romans chapter 1.
10 · Structural pivot into the exposition proper
Now, number 1, we're going to walk through it in a few questions. Number 1, what is underneath all sexual sin? Why do we have this impulse to drink the seawater?
11 · Close reading of Romans 1:24-25 focusing on the exchange motif
Look at verse 24. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Why? Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
12 · Propositional claim about the nature of sin
Why are we doing this? Because there is an exchange going on. Underneath anything the Bible calls sin is an exchange. An exchange of worship.
13 · Catechetical review of idolatry's definition from the previous sermon
And what we covered last week is that what the Bible thinks of as idolatry, calls idolatry, is far broader than just bowing down in front of a little wooden statue. Rather, what God calls idolatry is all that humanity does apart from God.
14 · Keller quotation expanding idolatry's definition with emotional and imaginative language
Tim Keller says this, an idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life that should you lose it, your life would hardly be worth living. And you're thinking, oh no, well, I'm not an idolater, but I do have a couple of those in my life. And Paul says, that's what I'm talking about.
15 · Signals a shift from general idolatry to a taxonomy of specific romantic/sexual idols
Now, as we look at sexual sin in particular, romantic idolatry in particular, there are 5 particular idols I want to just fly through really quickly that I think are present in our culture today.
16 · First idol in the taxonomy: the idol of being/identity
Number 1, the idol of being. Meaning, I want to be something. I want to discover who I really am inside. I want to create who I really am inside. This is the young woman who wants a new name, a new gender, a new identity so that they can feel themselves. Now, feeling yourself, feeling like yourself is not a bad thing, but when it becomes an ultimate thing and it's looked for in the wrong places, it can be a deadly thing.
17 · Second idol: belonging
Second, belonging. I want to belong. The idol of belonging. I want to fit in. This is the young woman who deeply wants to belong, to be desired by another person, who wants to maybe fit in with the other boys sending around inappropriate photos, who wants to have a girl look at him and say, you're mine. You belong to me. And then him feel that sense of relief. That idol of belonging.
18 · Third idol: beauty
Third, the idol of beauty. I want to experience beauty. I want to show off my beauty. I want to possess beauty, right? This is the woman who dresses with less and less clothing every year that goes by so that others will see her and call her beautiful, or the man who lusts after her and longs to possess her. They're both idolaters in different ways. Same issue.
19 · Fourth idol: transcendence/beyond
Fourth, the idol of beyond. What I'm getting at there is transcendence. That there is this idolatry of, I want to be taken away from here. I want to transcend. I want to— I hate this mundane, lonely, sad existence. I want to feel out of body in a sense. I want to live beyond. And it is both the girl looking at social media photos of weddings, longing for a transcendent moment, that everyone goes, oh, and she feels like she's beyond. And it is the young man or woman losing themselves late at night in pornography to escape loneliness. They want to live beyond.
20 · Fifth idol: breaking/transgression
Fifth and last, the breaking idol. The breaking idol, meaning they want to break free. They want to break out of normal life. They want to break through the routine. They want to feel the thrill of breaking free from what's holding them back. They wanna let it go. If Elsa does it, why can't they? This is the man or woman trapped in middle age longing for something new, considering an affair so that they might feel that illicit, exciting transgression one more time.
21 · Synthesizes the five-idol taxonomy back to the root: all are exchanges of God for lesser goods
All of these, do you see all of these are an exchange? They're exchanging God for an idol that they hope will give them what God can give, but ultimately can't.
22 · Begins a redemptive reversal on the five idols—showing what God actually offers in each category
And here is the dramatic irony. By turning away from God to these small idols, they change a good and true satisfying thing for a poor and broken substitute. Because when it comes to being, the idol of being, friends, We as Christians have a far better identity as image bearers of the living God. What greater sense of being could that be? And our culture apart from that looks everywhere else for it.
23 · Second redemptive reversal: belonging
When it comes to belonging, we want to belong to someone. We want someone to belong to us. Friends, we belong to the Creator of the universe and He calls us His special and particular creation and desires a relationship with us. Right? That's what we're longing for.
24 · Third redemptive reversal: beauty
When it comes to the desire for beauty, friends, the desire for beauty is not a bad thing in and of itself, but every glimmer and glimpse of beauty in this life has its source in the beauty of the God who made those things. And so to turn away from the giver to the gift means to miss the whole point.
25 · Fourth redemptive reversal: transcendence
And then when it comes to the idol of transcendence, of beyond, of I want to feel something amazing transcendent, I want to escape, I want to get lost. Friends, that longing is the longing in each of our hearts that we as human creatures feel for the transcendent and our relationship with God. And when we stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon or stare up at the Milky Way, when we feel those feelings, that is the creature's soul longing for the God who made the cosmos.
26 · Fifth redemptive reversal: freedom
And last, of breaking, of transgression. Oh friends, this is a poor substitute because we've believed the lie that true freedom is found in breaking out of God's rules. When in reality, true freedom is doing what you most want and desire to do. And that has its ultimate end in the God who made us. And so here's the irony. When we break out of that looking for that, we're never gonna find that, are we? It's just dust and air.
27 · Concludes the diagnostic section
So friends, that's what's behind. That is what tempts us to drink the saltwater.
28 · Structural pivot from motivation (why we're tempted) to mechanism (what happens when we give in)
And then second point, second question now, what happens in all sexual sin. That was why we're tempted. The second is what happens to us. Just like this British doctor is describing, here's the stages of what goes on with a thirsty person drinking salt water. This is what happens with us. Paul engages us and helps us understand what's going on inside.
29 · First stage of sexual sin's progression: inversion
First thing that happens is the created thing becomes an ultimate thing. Look at the language. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is Blessed forever. Amen. Right? So, so this is the, the sad reality. We get upside down. We get backwards. We start not looking for the Creator, but for the creature. Not for the giver, but for the gift.
30 · Theological claim about created things' insufficiency
And the sad irony is this. There is no real substitute for our Creator. There's nothing that's going to fill that hole. The, the closest, and this is why it's important, the closest we can get is a glimmer of the Creator in the created creature, right? So we don't look for God. We look for the image of God, that spark of glory in something around us. But friends, no man is going to be for you what only God can be. No woman is going to be for you what only God can be. No wedding is going to be for you what only God can be. No sexual experience is going to be for you what only God can be. The weight of our souls will only rest in the one who made us.
31 · Second stage: escalation
Second, our desire becomes over-desire. The lusts word here is epithumia, which means, which is translated sinful desires in the NIV. Basically, one way to translate it is an over-desire. It's a desire that kept in check is good and helpful, but over-desire It breaks and destroys.
32 · Analogy of campfire vs
Think of it as a small campfire is a good thing, right? Small campfire is a good thing. That small campfire transferred to your house, not a good thing, right? But fire is a good thing. It is in the campfire, right? But what if I just put my fire pit underneath that? No, let's not put it underneath the house. Let's not put it next to it.
33 · Synthesizes the campfire analogy back to the theological principle
Desire becomes over-desire. In other words, a good thing becomes a bad thing when it becomes a God thing. When it becomes a craving, a necessity, I must have this to live.
34 · Applies the over-desire principle to cultural sexual ethics
Listen, this is our— culture says things like this. I have to experience sex. I have to. Okay. Is experiencing sex a good thing as God created it? Yes. Is the I have to good? No. No. Similarly, I have to fulfill these urges, therefore I have to watch pornography. A good thing becomes an ugly thing when it becomes a God thing.
35 · Explicit counter-cultural claim
Look, friends, let me be very clear. Sex is not a need for your soul to live. Romance is not a need for your soul to live. As soon as these good gifts become requirements, become demands, become I must have this or I die, then we've gone awry. Then there is a problem.
36 · Third stage: defilement
Third thing happens. Dishonor and defiling always result. Notice this is honest. It says impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies. The language is intentionally religious. Notice that Paul is sort of turning upside down the temple prostitution paradigm of Rome, right, where you would go to worship but also fulfill your carnal desires. Paul is saying, no, no, no, that's actually not worshipful. That's ugly. That's dishonoring. That is impure. The impure is this language of a temple, of a clean and clear vessel that gets twisted and becomes something ugly, right?
37 · Synthesizes the three-stage progression of sexual sin: inversion, escalation, defilement
These 3 things are always happening. The created thing becomes an ultimate thing, desire becomes demand, and dishonor and defiling are the results.
38 · Redemptive reversal of the first stage
But the solution— here's the good news— the solution is clear. The Creator who is blessed forever Amen. When we put God back in that place in our lives that only he is meant to be, here's what happens. The created things are only more glorious, not less glorious, right? Because in them we see the glory of God himself, which only causes us to enjoy those things more, not less, as we enjoy them rightly.
39 · Redemptive reversal of the second stage
This desire that could master us, friends, When God is on the throne of our lives, our desires are mastered by the Lord and mastered, they're very good things. The campfire goes back to being an amazing place to roast marshmallows in the backyard when it stays where it should.
40 · Redemptive reversal of the third stage
And then third, dishonor and defiling. Oh friends, we're rescued from dishonor and defiling and made Beautiful again, given dignity and life again.
41 · Major structural hinge
That's what happens. So, that's why we're tempted to drink the seawater. That's what happens if we do drink the seawater. Now, 2 particular questions we need to answer today. One we'll spend, the first one we'll spend more time on. What does God say about homosexuality?
42 · Full reading of Romans 1:26-27 on same-sex relations
Verse 26, 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.
43 · Preemptive acknowledgment of revisionist interpretations
Now, I want to be very clear. I have heard a number of people, non-Christians and Christians, give arguments for why this particular text does not mean what it seems to very clearly mean on the face of it. I mean, just reading that, I think you understand the point. And if you're wondering, is it different in the original Greek? No. But I want to give brief responses to some of the things that I've heard. Maybe because you're wrestling, maybe because you've heard this, maybe because you will hear this.
44 · First objection refuted: the 'excess' argument
So, first argument is the argument is that this was arguing against excess, meaning that what Paul's problem was wasn't what we know today as stable, loving same-sex commitments. It was sort of a rampant, ugly promiscuity, you know, perverse parties and the like. And basically, it's saying Paul's criticizing You know, that, not these, what we have today. But Paul, notice this, Paul's criticism is not the amount of acts or the excess of the acts, it is the acts themselves that he's criticizing. So, I don't believe that's valid.
45 · Second objection refuted: the 'exploitation' argument
Second is an argument that this is arguing against exploitation. So, there was a thing that you'll hear this, a thing in the first century called pederasty, which was perverse and ugly student-teacher relationships that were expected among men and their male tutors in the ancient world, and maybe other exploitative situations. But friends, Paul intentionally includes women with women, which expands this beyond any of those exploitative pederastic relationships in the first century. So, clearly, Not valid.
46 · Third objection refuted: the 'observed nature' argument
Next, against nature argument, meaning my nature. So, I have heard the argument that when Paul is saying, against nature, against nature, that, okay, well, maybe that's true, but there are homosexual things happening among animals in nature. Therefore, therefore, against nature just means doing things animals don't do. Right? Meaning it's within the realm of nature, so maybe the Lord allows that. But friends, in the context of Romans 1, the whole point is that we see— what we see in creation has been bent from what it was meant to be. What we see in creation is that our minds, our hearts, and the world around us, including the animals and our bodies, they've been bent. That's Paul's point. So that's not valid.
47 · Fourth objection refuted: the 'Jesus never said it' argument
Another one is an argument essentially against inerrancy. So, if you've ever heard somebody say, well, Paul said that, but Jesus never said that. Jesus never said a word against homosexuality. Right? Jesus wouldn't have said that. Jesus is nice. Well, friends, Jesus over and over approves and only further establishes the Old Testament paradigm of sexual expression only between a one-man, one-woman lifelong commitment. Very clearly over and over and over. And we also believe as Christians all Scripture is God-breathed. That's what 2 Timothy 3:16 says. So all Scripture is God-breathed, not just the parts we like.
48 · Fifth objection refuted: the 'mental health' argument
And last, I would just say this. This is the most recent one, and I think I would dare say perhaps for the average Christian the most enticing, the mental health argument. The argument essentially is that this text, reading this text, applying this text leads to mental health strain and difficulty. That God would never want people to feel bad about themselves or consider harming themselves or consider you know, ugly things about themselves. And therefore, if this is causing mental distress, we essentially need to back off from it so we don't hurt anyone. But friends, Paul's point in Romans 1 is that our minds and our desires are miscalibrated because of sin. There may be things, friends, not there may be, there are always things in our Christian lives that cause us distress to read them in Scripture, aren't there? And it doesn't mean that we're not compassionate to people wrestling with the text, but friends, if somebody, according to Romans 1, if their mind and desires have been bent out of shape, the loving thing to do is to seek to bend them back into shape, not to bend the world into the warped shape.
49 · Transition from refuting objections to positive exposition
So, what is the text saying then? What does God say here about homosexuality?
50 · Synthesizing thesis on homosexuality from Romans 1
It's simply this. Here's my summary, that when humanity chose to exchange God for idols, it resulted in the exchange of the good created order for a broken order, and that includes romantic and sexual desires and activity. That's what it says.
51 · Vertical/horizontal misalignment metaphor
Our worship and relationship with God, Romans 1 says, have gotten, have been misaligned vertically. And when we are misaligned vertically, everything else on the horizontal plane in the way we relate to one another is misaligned itself. Meaning if you don't know which way is up, you don't know which way is level. If you think this is up and this is level, you're not right. So it's only when we're actually oriented to the Lord that we know what is level. That's what Paul is saying.
52 · First creational argument against homosexuality: design for complementarity
And Paul— notice the language— Paul uses homosexuality as an example of God giving us over to the natural conclusion of our bent impulses. The against nature has a number of creational overtones here. I'm not going to spend a ton of time here, but I just want to point these out in light of Genesis 1 and 2. First, we were made to desire as as human beings, made to desire the other. That God could have created human beings just one gender, but he creates 2. He creates them in complement. He creates them that they would desire the other, sacrifice for the other, love the other. And this bends— well, this bends us inward on the same gender. Losing some of the beauty of God's created order.
53 · Cultural example from Dancing with the Stars illustrating complementarity
One of my favorite examples of this is my wife sometimes likes to watch clips of Dancing with the Stars, if you are one of those people. And one of the most interesting things about that show to me is there are a number of open same-sex relationship people that are dancing and involved in it, but almost without exception, they dance with a member of the opposite gender. And you think, why would that be? Well, I think it's obvious because there is a unique beauty in complementarity in the way that God has designed that we see even in dance. Right? So, Paul is saying, you don't want to dance with the same partner. You're losing some of the beauty there.
54 · Second and third creational arguments: anatomical design and procreative purpose
Second, I would just point this out. The way that God— I'm not going to get graphic here, but the way that God has made us in our bodies fits together with the other. At the risk of overstating that, I think it should be obvious. And third, in God's design, when we fit together as God has made with the other, we reproduce and create new life. And no amount of sexual encounters with the same gender produces that new life.
55 · Synthesizes the creational arguments into doxological affirmation
So, Paul is simply saying this is as God has made it. It is beautiful. It should be celebrated. It should be enjoyed. It should be held up as an example of the Creator's infinite beauty and glory reflected in human beings and our when we're not oriented right vertically in our relationship with God, we end up in all kinds of places.
56 · Transition to transgenderism
Fourth, big question, what does God then say about transgenderism? Now, you might think, well, this is not in the text. And I would say, 50 years ago, I don't think a pastor would have probably commented on this because 50 years ago, what we think of as transgender impulses was mostly I think almost exclusively young adult men or older men desiring to wear women's clothes, etc. But now the most common group wrestling with this phenomenon are young women from the ages of 12 to 18. And we live in a world in which there are hormone replacements, there are body changes, there are surgical procedures that people can undergo from the time of their teens And so, what does God say about that?
57 · Grounds the transgenderism discussion in Paul's 'nature' language
And I would just simply point back to the verses 26 and 27, his phrasing, contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations. So again, that nature, nature, nature is what he keeps saying. I think that what Paul is referring to in nature is his way of saying here, creational. You see all the references to Creator, creature, Creator, creature, and the old times, it's referencing Genesis 1 and 2. He's essentially, when he's saying against nature, he's saying against the creational order.
58 · States the opposing view: contemporary gender theory as social constructivism
Now, here's the challenge. Gender today in many circles is a construct, is seen as, let me just say this, seen as a construct that is culturally conditioned. Anybody can be a man, anybody can be a woman.
59 · Pastoral detour on intersex conditions
And also people often throw in, surprisingly often, what about intersex people? I want to deal with that very quickly. There are times biology is broken, but infants with unclear genitalia account for 0.02% of all people born. Okay, this is an incredibly small percentage. And I would also say, as Romans 1 has said clearly, there are times when genetic abnormalities mean that our bodies do not work as they were originally intended in Genesis 1 and 2. And friends, we mourn those times. We grieve with those people. We seek to love them as image bearers. And I think that should be clear.
60 · Core thesis on transgenderism
Yet, what are the categories of men and women? Against, I think, Scripture, we have turned contrary to nature to become contrary to our impulses. But rather, this text says contrary to the creational order.
61 · Concedes culturally conditioned gender expressions (kilts vs
Now, there are culturally conditioned aspects of manhood and womanhood, right? There are lots of variations of this across the face of the earth. Think of a warrior, okay? In one culture, a warrior wears a kilt, right? In other cultures, they would be like, nah, bro. I'm not doing a skirt. And they're like, it's not a skirt, it's a kilt. And it's super masculine. Right? Or similarly, in some cultures, a warrior wears a kimono. Right? You think like, well, samurais aren't masculine. No, samurais are very masculine. And in other cultures, perhaps some would say the best cultures, warriors wear Wrangler jeans. Right? I mean, just, that's just, you know, that's just, I think, obvious. But the other aspect of it would be in one culture, women would run the farm, would be in charge of the livestock, would be buying and selling and birthing cows and all those things. And in other cultures, women would never be expected to dirty their hands and stay inside the home with domestic things in that sphere. And there's a great diversity.
62 · Distinguishes between cultural expressions (clothing) and creational categories (male and female)
But notice this, Romans 1 is not referring to the wrangler versus kilt, you know, debates of our culture. He's referring, he's cutting all the way back through that cultural stuff back to creation. Creational manhood. Creational womanhood. Right? And there is a clarity in Scripture that cuts across cultures and times and generations of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. And we hold and prize and pursue those things. And I would just refer you back, if that's new to you, refer you back to our messages this spring from Ephesians on manhood and womanhood and the like.
63 · Major structural hinge anticipating pastoral pushback
5, 5, number 5, why is this good news? Maybe you're getting to this point and you're going, this is more just discouraging, right? Why would Paul bring all of this up? Why would he do this? Is Paul just trying to wag his finger at everybody in the Roman church and at everybody in 21st century in America and say, what's wrong with you people? That's not what he's doing.
64 · Frames the entire Romans 1 diagnosis within the letter's gospel thesis
Remember the thesis of this letter and the banner hanging over this section is Romans 1:16-17. The righteous shall live by faith. Right? That is what he is trying to get us to. He's trying to help us see our unrighteousness that we might then see see our right, the need for a righteous gift from Christ. It's only when we see we need the Lord that we can turn to the Lord, that we can receive the Lord, that we can place our faith in the Lord.
65 · Universal application of the diagnosis
Now look, when we get to this point, I hope everybody in this room has gotten to something fundamental. Recognizing that we are all without exception romantic idolaters. We are all without exception sexual idolaters. We are all without exception identity idolaters. And even if we're like, well, I wouldn't do that. Well, friend, you do something else. We all do something else.
66 · Gospel invitation tied to 1 Corinthians 6:11
But when, friend, when you get to the point where you put your hand up and you say, I have problems, man. I am not righteous. I have— been defiled in different ways by my own desires and by the culture around me. That's when you get to the good news of places like 1 Corinthians 6:11, which says of sexual idolaters, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
67 · Unpacks 1 Corinthians 6:11's threefold remedy: washing (cleansing from defilement), sanctification (restoration for holiness), justification (right standing with God)
Why is Paul getting us here? Because he wants us to see that in Christ, if you recognize that you have become dirty and defiled, in Christ you can be washed. In Christ, friend, if you think I've made a mess of my life, you can be sanctified and set apart again for holiness. You're like, I've gotten too far off the road. I, I can't get back. Yes you can. By the power of Christ, you can be set apart again. Or maybe you're thinking, man, I'm just not right with God. You don't know what I've got in my past. You don't know what I've done. You don't know how many ways I've messed up with how many people and how many things. You have no idea where I have been. Friend, the Lord does. And He still says there is a way. There is a way for the unrighteous to be made righteous with the righteous gift of Christ today.
68 · Confronts works-righteousness
Look, friend, if you are in church today thinking, I really got to turn my life around. I got to get some good deeds on the side. To balance the bad. Friends, lay it down and receive the righteous gift of Christ. That's the only way to get right. The only way.
69 · Signals shift to pastoral application in three audience-specific categories
All right, so now briefly, we'll drop into 3 application categories. Number 1, what if I'm struggling with sexual identity or same-sex desires?
70 · Acknowledges the statistical likelihood of affected listeners
Now, I want to be clear here. In a room of this size, in a church of our size, there are people dealing with this. They're in your home group. They're in your friend group. You may not even know about it. So, I want to speak carefully to them now.
71 · First pastoral instruction: assurance of love
What if you're struggling with these things? Here's the first thing I want to say to you. Know that God loves you and know that we love you. John 3:16 reminds us that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Friend, I want you to know that God created you, that God cares for you, and he cares for you so much that he sent Jesus Christ for you. And friend, alongside Jesus, we're in the back. He's in the front of the picture, but we're in the back saying, we love you too. We love you very much. Know that.
72 · Second pastoral instruction: epistemic humility
Second, I want to encourage you to distrust more than you think in light of Romans 1. Here is the reality. We are all fish swimming in a sea and we do not know that we are wet. The culture around us, your categories of what it means to be a man or a woman, to have a gender, your categories of sexual activity, your categories of romance, your categories of identity. Let me say this as lovingly as I can. They're not yours. You inherited them. You have absorbed them. And that means You need to ask the question, are they right? Are they right? You're trying to use them to make sense of the world. But friend, if Romans 1 is right, our reason, our thinking, our emotions have been bent out of shape. So here's the irony. Sometimes I'll find people in this place and they'll be going, man, I just don't— I'm questioning the Bible. I don't know if I can believe the Bible. And my reason and my emotions don't line up with the Bible. So I'm really questioning the Bible. And I will try to lovingly say, but are you questioning your reason and your emotions too? Are you playing fair and letting the Bible question your reason and emotions? Or is it like, no, no, it only works this way. Friends, distrust more than you think.
73 · Third pastoral instruction: absolute trust in Scripture
Third, trust one thing absolutely, the Word of God. Look, there's only one thing that's not bound by bias, that's not the product of some cultural hallucination that you can guarantee. There's only one place for full, unadulterated, unfiltered truth, and that is in the breathed-out Word of God himself. Because if it is what it claims, it is the manual for your life from the person who gave you the life. It is the manual to your life from the author of life itself. It is a love letter from your estranged heavenly Father that you ran away from but desperately long to go back to. It is the one true solid place in this world that's being told to you by somebody outside of this bent culture, outside of your world, outside of your generation, that loves you and you can trust. Trust that.
74 · Fourth pastoral instruction: cross-centeredness with two movements
Number 4, remember the cross. Friend, the cross reminds us that God loves romantic and sexual sinners like you and me so much he was willing to die for them. And then the cross reminds us that we must, in coming to the cross, take up our cross and follow Jesus. Bonhoeffer said well, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. There is no version of the Christian life that you're like, can I get the life without the cross? There's no way. There is no way in salvation, but neither is there any way in the Christian life. There will be places and moments in which you have to take up your cross and follow Jesus.
75 · Fifth pastoral instruction: resurrection hope
And then fifth and last, remember the empty tomb. The reason I say that is this, that Jesus is not just after you taking up your cross because he wants to see you suffer. Jesus is after your life. He wants you to live. He wants more life for you, not less. He wants you to be free, not chained. He wants you to have hope, not be hopeless. He wants you to be embraced, not estranged, right? That is what God wants for you. So look to him. He's the only guy that came back from the dead and who loves you.
76 · Transition to second application category: loved ones who have identified as LGBT
Second, what if somebody I love has identified as LGBT? I've lost count of the number of people I've had this conversation with. I would venture to say at this point, all of us have somebody we care about in our lives that has identified as LGBTQIA+. I don't, you know, you run out of alphabet at some point. And I think it's a conversation that you've had, you are having, you will have.
77 · First instruction for those with LGBT-identified loved ones: bring your hurt to Jesus before taking action
First thing I want to encourage you to do, friend, is— I got this from Josh Blount, who's a great Bible scholar on this issue, and I asked him one time, what's the most important thing to tell somebody who they find out, okay, this family member, this friend, this person is like, I'm this, what are you going to do in response? And he said— Josh, I thought, was so wise. He said, okay, the first thing I'm going to do is not take them to some verse, not do this. I'm going to sit with them invite them to bring their hurt to Jesus. Because let's be honest, friend, it hurts. If what we've said is true, people we really, really love are doing things that are only gonna hurt them, and that's hard. That is hard. And friends, The good news is this: Jesus invites us to bring our hurts to him. Suffering for the Christian life is part of the Christian life, but Jesus doesn't leave us in our suffering. He invites us to bring it to him that he might meet us in it. He binds up the brokenhearted. So go to him.
78 · Second instruction: absolute trust in Scripture (repeated from first category)
Second, trust one thing absolutely. And you're going like, I thought that was what you told the other group. Yep, you too, friend. You need to trust one thing absolutely. One of the tragedies in these moments is that our attempts to love a relative or a friend, we begin to trust their experiences or their perspective more than the Word of God, or begin to trust our experiences and our perspective more than the Word of God. We should trust neither. We should run to the Word. We should run to the Word.
79 · Third instruction: diagnose the spiritual need beneath the sexual identity
Third, see the gospel-shaped need in their life. See it clearly. Their primary need is not ultimately social, it's not ultimately political, it is a soul need. It's been said famously that every man knocking on the door of a brothel is looking for God, meaning that every one of these activities that you think, oh man, What's going on there? What's going on there is somebody's trying to replace God. They're trying to find God. They're trying to find a replacement for God. And similarly, anybody who is part of this camp is looking for something that can satisfy their soul. They just are looking for it in the wrong place.
80 · Fourth instruction: refuse to affirm LGBT identity or choices despite cultural pressure
Fourth, let me encourage you. Lovingly, don't affirm their identity or their choices. Our culture demands affirmation because of this sequence, because our culture, because of Freud, has basically gotten used to thinking that the deepest part of who I am as a human being is my sexual preferences. And therefore, if others do not affirm the deepest part of who I am, they do not affirm me as a human being. And if they do not affirm me as a human being, they hate me. And you're going, that escalated quickly. But that's— that is— those are the categories of our culture. That's what we've absorbed. And so the temptation to sort of be able to get as close to that line as we can is there. But friends, We should not muddy the road to Jesus Christ. If we know there is only one way to be set right in all of life and it is being rightly related to the Lord and we see somebody who perhaps is bent over this way thinking that this is level, the way you help them is not by affirming, well, it's kind of level. It's by going, friend, I love you so much. It's not level. I care about you. I'm for you. I want to be in your life, but it's not level. We don't affirm.
81 · Fifth instruction: reaffirm love as image-bearers
And then last, I would say this, 5th, we do reaffirm our love for them as image bearers of God himself. Friends, we should do all we can to treat those in this category with respect as image bearers of God, with dignity as image bearers of God. We should care for them. We should have compassion on them. We should serve them as Jesus Christ has served us. Friends, we should do all we can to reaffirm that we love them and God loves them.
82 · Transition to third application category: those harboring animosity toward LGBT people
And third and last big category is this: What if I can't stand LGBT-identified people? I dare say there's probably more of us in this category than we want to admit.
83 · First instruction for the self-righteous: remember your own total dependence on grace
And I would just say, number one, if that's you, see your own need for God's grace in the areas of sin, identity, sexuality, and idolatry, meaning that that none of us come to the foot of the cross with a shred of self-righteousness intact. Like, if you are a Christian, you're the one who's put your hand up and saying, I am hopeless, helpless, unrighteous, and without a way back from the mess I've created, and I need Jesus. Just remember that. Remember that. Like, it's easy in the years since then to be like, well, I needed him 99%. I needed him 98. I needed him 90%, right? And it just begins to creep up. Well, it's kind of like me and Jesus, we're a tag team, kind of a wrestling team. He tagged me in, I tagged him in, right? We kind of work together on this. No, friend. You were without— Scripture would say you are without God and without hope in this world, right? That's where we start. And such were some of us in 1 Corinthians 6.
84 · Second instruction: active repentance of self-righteousness
Second then, repent of self-righteousness. Look, self-righteousness tells a lie about the gospel, and the lie it tells about the gospel is that we don't fully need God or that we might just be a little more righteous than the person next to us, and those are antithetical to the gospel.
85 · Third instruction: persistent intercessory prayer
Third, pray for them. Pray for them. Friends, ask God to meet them. Bring them before the Lord. Not just once, not just twice, not when you're like, you know, you pray for them. You know what kind of prayer that is, right? I prayed those prayers. Get frustrated with something, you know, that's a prayer. God, you know, I'm real angry at Gary. God help Gary. That guy. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, Lord, I can't believe that I'm a Christian and there's so many that need Jesus, including this friend of mine, including this neighbor, including this family member. God, give them a sight of the gospel. God, give me a heart for them the way you had for me. God, give me opportunities to get in their life. God, get Christians in their life. Lord, let me Let me be a means of grace to them, right? Talk to the Lord about them.
86 · Fourth instruction: relational engagement and gospel transparency
And then second, I would say, talk to them and talk to them about the Lord. Build a relationship with them. Just talk to them. What do they love? What do they hate? What do they fear? What's going on in their life? What's work like? What's neighboring like? What's family like, right? Open up your life to them and see if they will open a door to their life. Be honest about your faith. Share the difference the gospel is making with you. Tell them when they said, what did you do this weekend? And you intentionally always don't say church. Say, I went to church and it was great. We had communion. I was convicted and the Lord met me there, right? That's, that's just be honest.
87 · Diagnoses cultural asymmetry: LGBT people openly share their identity while Christians hide theirs
Here's, here's the thing. Our culture, there's an asymmetry right now with Christians and that particular group where it's, it's like they're, that group, perhaps the LGBT camp, is more than happy to talk to you about what they love and hate and fear, right? But Christians, perhaps not so much. Christians are not as open about their faith and love for the Lord. And so, friends, let's be willing to hear from them, but then let's be as honest as they are, with love, about our relationship with the Lord.
88 · Returns to the saltwater metaphor to close
Let me end with this. Every year people die of thirst in the middle of the ocean surrounded by water. And drinking the water only, well, it only makes it worse. It may slake your thirst for a moment, but it ultimately only speeds your demise. And friends, we live in a culture that is drinking salt water with more and more more rapid consumption, seeking to slake our thirst with more and more and more of the things in this area, hoping that one day they'll take a drink and finally be satisfied.
89 · Final twofold application: (1) believers, don't drink the seawater, and (2) hold out the water of life to the dying
And friends, here is my call. Here is my encouragement. Let's, one, not drink the salt water. There is no life there. You may say, well, he drank it and he seems better. For a moment. They drink it and they seem happy for a moment. Friends, so does the man drinking salt water in the middle of the ocean. We don't drink the salt water. And second, we with all we are hold out the hope of the water of life.
90 · Climactic Scripture reading from Revelation 22
Friends, I want to read the end of Revelation to you. And if you, if you are here today and you're here and going, man, I think I've had some of that salt water. And I've been wondering why I keep getting thirsty. Friends, let me invite you to see this as God's invitation to you today. And if you have people that you love in your life like I do, let me encourage you to extend Jesus' invitation to them. Jesus says, At the end of Revelation chapter 22, the Spirit and the bride say, come, and let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Let me read that again. And let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
91 · Final charge
Friends, this is the only hope for a lost and parched world, and this This is the hope we have that we can hold out to men and women dying around us. That the same water of life that has brought us to life would be offered to others. Amen.
92 · Closing prayer interceding specifically for those wrestling with sexual identity questions
Would you stand and let's pray. Ah, Heavenly Father. Lord, my burden in this moment is particularly for anyone who is perhaps wrestling, perhaps struggling, perhaps wondering, perhaps filled with questions. Lord, I just pray that they would hear Your voice above every other voice in their life, above the voice of their friends, above the voice of online chatter, above the voice of the television shows and things around us, above the voice even in their own heart. God, would they hear Your voice? Lord, would You call them and invite them to come and take hold of the water of life, without price. As we turn our eyes to Jesus, in Jesus' name, amen.