Introduction:

Story about husband and wife arguing over who should make the breakfast coffee. Husband: you are the wife, you do all the cooking, you should make the coffee, too. Wife: you always get up earlier than I do. You should make the coffee. Besides, the Bible says that the husband should make the coffee. Husband: Where is THAT in the Bible??? Wife: There's a whole Bible book about it. She opens Bible and points to word at top of page: HEBREWS.

Over the years, married people have had a lot of arguments about gender roles. Nowdays, it has gotten out of hand, and we are increasingly bombarded with propaganda from people promoting the meaningless of gender, and the normalness of homosexuality.

Forty years ago, homosexuality was not an issue. The word "gay" still meant "happy and cheerful." Times have changed.

American culture is more accepting of homosexuality every year. Until recently, homosexual activity was a felony in every state. On June 26, 2003 the Supreme Court struck down all state laws prohibiting homosexual activities. Republicans and Democrats alike court the gay vote. President Bush has appointed many gay activists to important posts in his administration. The number of TV shows promoting homosexuality is growing rapidly. Gay marriage was recently legalized in Canada. Massachusets and New Jersey are about to legalize gay marriage.

One of the distinctives of the PCA is our stand on moral issues. We are against abortion, the killing of unborn children. We are also against homosexuality. In our denomination, there are NO PCA pastors who are gay. There are NO PCA pastors who would say anything other than that the gay lifestyle is sinful. We have issued official statements about homosexuality. For example:

In 1997 the General Assembly said "Both the act and the desire of homosexuality is a sin, and a practicing homosexual continuing in this sin would not be a fit candidate for ordination or membership in the PCA."

In 2000 the General Assembly said: "The PCA is committed to the sanctity of human sexual relationships. We believe God's intent in creation was that male and female would be complementary, that the privilege of sexual expression would be between male and female only, and this expression would be only in the context of marriage. Both heterosexual and homosexual sexual behavior outside of marriage violates the human spirit and distorts God's intent for men and women."

But the American Church as a whole is having great difficulty with this issue. Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists and Evangelical Lutherans now have large numbers of gay and lesbian pastors. They have powerful homosexual political action groups that work in their Annual Church Assemblies to advance their cause. The Episcopalians recently ordained their first gay bishop. Episcopalian pastors are teaching their parishoners that they did a good thing.

This is all very confusing. If you pay attention to what's happening in our culture, the barrage of pro-gay news is enough to make your head spin. As the years go by, Christians know less about the Bible, and are more influenced by American culture than ever before. It is important for the Church to speak the truth. Today we are going to study the Christian view of homosexuality, taught by the Bible. Once in a discussion about faith, Jesus said to his opponents: "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God."

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

I. Homosexuality is Sinful.

A. There are many verses in the Bible that say that homosexual activity is sinful. In Leviticus 18:20-25 God expands on each of the ten commandments, and goes into detail on what they forbid. The seventh commandment "thou shalt not commit adultery," is expanded in these words:

"Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her. Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants."

B. The Apostle Paul calls homosexuality a sin in three different places in the New Testament:

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." (Romans 1:26-27)

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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." (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

"We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts (NIV) (sodomites in NKJV; homosexuals in NASB), for slave traders and liars and perjurers--and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine." (I Timothy 1:9-10)

The Bible uses these words to describe homosexual activity: perversion, rebelliousness, wicked, shameful, un-natural, indecent and detestable. You can't get any clearer than that.

II. Homosexuality is a choice.

A. James 1:13-15 tells us not to blame God for our temptations, but ourselves.

"When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

B. People who are committed to homosexuality often say that they can't help it. They were born that way. In fact, their homosexuality is a GOOD thing, because God made them that way, and to reject it is to reject God's will for them.

There are two important points to make about this idea:

1. Contrary to common belief, babies are not born innocent and sinless. Babies are sinners from their conception in the womb. David wrote about his own sinful heart in Psalm 51:5: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." We are ALL born just itching to break all ten of the commandments, just as soon as we can. If you DO have homosexual inclinations from birth, that doesn't justify your sinful inclinations.

2. The idea that God made each of us is a simplified doctrine for children, and not entirely true. It is the milk of the Word, and not the meat. The Bible does not say that God made each of us in the same way that He created Adam and Eve. God made them directly and supernaturally. They were spiritually and physically perfect. They were exactly as God wanted them to be. But you and I were never created directly by God from dust or from a rib. We were not made supernaturally, but naturally. We don't come into this world perfect in either body or soul. We were made by our parents, and they by their parents, and so on, all the way back to Noah.

When we come into this world we are not perfect as were Adam and Eve. We have bodies that will get sick, grow old and die. We have bodies that will tempt us to sin. We have souls that already know how to sin, and already want to sin. It is bad theology to blame our sinful inclinations on God, or to justify our sins, and say that God wants us to be that way. God has commanded us to resist temptation, not to embrace it.

B. Anyone who justifies his sins, of whatever sort, is just like the kings in Psalm 2:2-3:

"The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters."

III. Straight people must beware of self-righteous pride.

A. Remember Paul's words in Romans 2:1. "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."

B. People who commit the sin of homosexuality are breaking the seventh commandment. But there are nine more. How many have YOU AND I already broken today? We address the issue of homosexuality because it has been forced upon us, not because we are out to get homosexuals, or because we think they are worse than other sinners.

C. We must beware of having a self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude toward gays and lesbians. True, they are sinners. But we are sinners, too. People who take God's name in vain, who dishonor their parents, who drink too much, who lie, cheat and steal, who claim to be Christians but never go to church, etc. etc. are every bit as sinful as homosexuals.

D. Listen again to Paul: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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." (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Paul clearly says, "...that is what some of you were." Some of the church members in Corinth were converted homosexuals. They had been saved and sanctified by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. They were church members, just like all the other converted sinners. We need to remind ourselves over and over: we too are just converted sinners. We are not better than anybody else, including homosexuals.

Conclusion: The key word is repentance.

One of the lady commissioners at the Episcopal Assembly was saying on TV: "I just kept asking myself, what would Jesus do?" Unfortunately she came to the wrong conclusion about that, but it was a good question. What would Jesus say to gays and lesbians?

Jesus would call for repentance. Jesus did not come into the world to bring condemnation. He came to bring salvation. But there is a condition: repentance. Jesus preached the message of repentance repeatedly: "From that time on Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17). "Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent" (Matthew 11:20). What did Jesus say to the woman caught in the act of adultery? "Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:10-11).

The Church is not in this world to bash gays or any other sinners. But we do call sinners to repentance. We hold out a loving hand, and we offer the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone.