Beloved, I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 1 and verse 18 and following, and please stand with me for the reading of God's holy word. Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they 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 the creature rather than the 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 of their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Here ends the reading of God's Word. Let us pray. Our Father, as we come to a very hot and controversial topic in our age, as we come to a passage which teaches us more about human sexuality, your design and the created order and the departure from it. We pray that you'd grant us wisdom. We pray that you would disciple our hearts and our minds from your word. And Lord, we pray that if there would be any in our midst today that are struggling with the things mentioned in this passage, that you would be pleased to speak your tender words of love, your tender words of mercy, and your tender words of hope in the gospel through this sermon and by your spirit. Oh Lord, be glorified, we pray, so that all of us together would cling to Christ to his forgiveness, to his love, to his mercy, and to his truth for our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. A well-known Christian writer recently commented that today we are witnessing nothing less than a total revolution in sexual morality. Indeed, what we are now experiencing is not the logical outworking of the West's Christian-influenced teaching on human sexuality, but the repudiation of them. Let us understand this, beloved. It is not just that our culture is no longer embracing that which it has embraced for millennium. It's actually repudiating it. What is happening all around us is a moral crisis that cannot be ignored. Everything is changing so fast. So the question we want to ask ourselves is how do we respond as Christian believers to everything that is happening around us in our culture? We've already discussed this some in this series. And we learned last time that one very important thing to do, the first thing we need to do is to know the truth. Too many Christians are going out into the field of battle or into the field of life and ministry and vocation without their armor on, without the armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of truth. They don't have them. And so the arguments and the testimonies that seek to tug at your heart and to make you feel sympathy with that which is against God's Word and against what is best, they start to influence. They start to shape your thinking. Over and over again, it has been made very clear by those who are leading the sexual revolution. It has become and is abundantly clear through the literature that they are writing and providing, that there is an agenda and a goal to shape and to transform and to engineer the minds of American people and children as to how they ought to think about marriage and sexuality. It is not being done in a corner, friends. If you were to pick up a book from 20 years ago and read about those who are seeking to shape and to influence culture and to eradicate any idea of Christian marriage and sexual morality, We are ignorant and foolish if we don't think there is this agenda. There is this agenda. That agenda has been clearly set out in these books to begin to place storylines and narratives in literature and in television and in Hollywood movies. Have you not seen this? It's hard these days to find any kind of entertainment that does not have a narrative or storyline of homosexuality or some other kind of sexual illicit behavior. Another part of the agenda is to get churches who no longer believe that the Bible is the word of God to embrace this lifestyle and really any kind of lifestyle when it comes to one's sexual orientation or or position to get the church, the mainline church, to embrace it and to promote the lifestyle. Guess what? They have done that. In the last 20 years, this agenda has come to fruition, so much so that now decrees are being sent forth from the White House in unlawful ways to communicate to you that you cannot hold to what the majority, the vast majority of Americans held to just a few years ago. You cannot hold that without being some kind of a bigot. Friends, this is not a joke. This is all happening. And we need to ask, how do we respond? The first way we respond, friends, is to know the truth. So last time we were together, we went back to the beginning, to creation, to learn about the institution of marriage, the creation of marriage and sexuality, and to be reminded of their nature and their God-given purpose. If you weren't here two weeks ago when I preached that sermon, I want to encourage you to listen to it. I really would have rather just preached these two together, but it would have been a two-hour sermon. Don't wanna test your patience. The benches are hard, I get that. I learned this week though that George Washington's pew is much less comfortable than what you're sitting on in Williamsburg. We were reminded last time we were together from Genesis one and two that on the sixth day of creation, God created man. He created man in his own image and placed him in the midst of a vast garden to exercise dominion over it. But man was alone. Lots of animals were around, but the Bible says he was alone. There was no one like him. No one fit for him. Someone to come alongside him. No one to share his life with. No one to worship with. No one to have an intelligent conversation with. There was a little turtle walking through our yard, far away from the pond in our neighborhood. And I grabbed the turtle, and the turtle was cute, and it was popping his little head out and his arms. But you know what? I didn't have a conversation with it. There was no stimulating conversation going on with me and the turtle. Adam had no one. no one that he could become one in flesh with, no one whom he could be fruitful and multiply with. Therefore, it says in the Bible that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh from that rib, God created woman. And then in one of the most beautiful and tender moments in all of history, God brought the woman to the man. He brought her, the Bible says. to him. God brought Eve to Adam and then declared that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Adam and Eve were created to be together. They were fit for each other. We learned last time they were fit for each other emotionally because men are from Mars and women are from Venus. They're different. They were fit for each other emotionally. They were fit for each other anatomically. Hello, you don't need to be a biology professor to see that. They were fit for each other anatomically and they were fit for each other spiritually. We learned that last time we were together. Adam and Eve were created to be together. God instituted marriage between a man and a woman to bring glory to himself and to reflect the beautiful relationship between Christ, the husband, the bridegroom, and the church, the bride. We unpacked this foundational biblical narrative in Genesis 2 to remind us that marriage and sex and sexuality were created by God and thus should always be understood and practiced on God's terms, not man's. That really could be the summary of the Christian life, God's terms. We live, we believe, we practice, we love on God's terms, not on man's terms. And it's the best. It's the best. No one should pretend to have the liberty to change what God has called right and good and blessed. Therefore, in the midst of the profound sexual confusion of our day, in the midst of the sexual revolution, which is changing the American landscape, With hurricane-like strength, we must cast our anchor afresh upon God's eternal and unchanging truth. Friends, with courage, with courage, with renewed conviction, with loving humility, we must hold fast to the truth in our post-Christian culture. People are going to say that it's unloving to believe Christian truth. People are going to make you feel like there's no way that you could be humble and loving and hold to this truth. But that does not mean they're right in saying so. and oh, it should make us all the more want to pray for a humble spirit, a loving way that we interact with those who do not hold to these positions at this time and to reach out to them with loving humility, not with harshness or abrasiveness as so often we see in the Christian community. Last week, we sought to take a positive look at marriage, sex, and sexuality. two weeks ago, rather, and to be reminded of God's beautiful design and purpose for the covenant of marriage and for the beautiful expression of sexual intimacy within Marriage. We sought to unpack that. And we learned that the Bible actually has quite a bit to say about the role of sex and that quite opposite of having a prudish view of sexuality, the Bible celebrates it. When it's expressed within the context of a biblical marriage between a man and a woman, the Bible celebrates it. It's not prudish. Have you ever read the Song of Solomon? Last time we were together, we spent time unpacking Genesis 2 and a positive view of marriage. This week, we are going to highlight some of the departures from God's design. Matthew 28 calls us to make disciples, to teach all that Christ commanded. Part of discipleship is showing how the culture is wrong and how God's word is right. And so this is so important for us to come to this passage to understand better, not only God's design, but the departures from that design. We not only want to show from scripture what God's word teaches about these departures, but also to communicate the hope, the forgiveness and the healing that is extended in the gospel. So before we begin, I do want to say a couple of things by way of introduction. Everyone in this room has sinful tendencies and inclinations towards certain kinds of sin. I know enough as a pastor about human nature, my own heart, as well as the hearts of those I've been pastoring for about 20 years, that every single person born in sin, and even as Christians still struggling against indwelling sin, possess sinful inclinations. They may be sexual inclinations. They may be inclinations to having a fiery temper. They may be inclinations towards being obsessive and thus getting involved in things like drunkenness or drugs. There may be other things in which you have weaknesses and inclinations towards. We all need God's grace. Our goal this morning is not to pick on those or to speak down to those that may have honest struggles with same-sex attraction. I have known, ministered to, and prayed for others who are Christian believers who struggle with same-sex attraction. This is not a sermon to pick on those that struggle with that. This is a sermon to help us learn God's will about marriage and sexuality and how to live in the light of that truth. Secondly, the Bible is not a book about homosexuality. though it does teach us a lot about it, it's not a book about it. There are those who seem to get, they have a one-tune band and all they wanna talk about is this deplorable sin of homosexuality as if it's the only sin that exists in the world. The Bible is not a book about homosexuality. The Bible is a book about God's holiness, God's justice, and the grace of the gospel through faith in a savior who died on the cross for sinners. That's what the Bible is about, chiefly. But it also does teach us something about homosexuality, and we want to learn what that is. Thirdly, the Bible doesn't condemn sinful inclinations or struggles, only the acting out of those inclinations and struggles. It is a lie that those who struggle with same-sex attraction should give in to those struggles simply because they have them. What kind of line of thinking is that? When it comes to anything the Bible teaches is wrong. Every person, every sinful person has sinful inclinations towards one thing or another. Our sinful tendencies should never determine our behavior or our lifestyle. Fourthly, God's grace is greater than our sin. God's grace saves and transforms. Let me tell you, I had lots of very sinful inclinations before I became a Christian. I will not enumerate them. But God, when he saves a person, he begins to change them. through the means of grace, through Christian fellowship, through relationships, he cleanses us from all unrighteousness. You know that verse, it's so beautiful, that was quoted earlier for our assurance of pardon, Pastor Ross read, when we confess our sins, he is faithful and what? Just. Because of Christ, He is just. Because Christ was condemned for us, He is just to forgive us our sins. Justification. And to what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sanctification. God saves and transforms. Christ welcomes sinners of every kind into his kingdom who embrace Christ and turn from their sin. My prayer this morning is that those who may be struggling with homosexual tendencies or same-sex attraction would hear what the Bible teaches about these things, just as it would teach on other matters that are contrary to the will of God, contrary to God's best for you, and to look to Christ for mercy and for forgiveness. Look to the one who embraces you when you come to him, turning from that which is contrary to his word, receiving his grace and forgiveness. So with those things in mind, let us think about this brief outline. from Romans chapter one, 18 through 32. First of all, we have God's wrath revealed, then we have God's judgment manifested, and then God's gospel declared. God's wrath revealed, God's judgment manifested, God's gospel declared. And before I begin, I also want to say, because this is such a controversial and hot topic, And we all probably in this room know someone who is struggling with this very thing. We perhaps know those who are, as I talked about two weeks ago, their whole identity is wrapped up in their sexuality. We probably know things like this, know people like this. Perhaps you are yourself struggling with that very thing. As we come to this, I'm not going to be able to make every single nuance and every single qualification that could possibly be made, or to bring out every single point that could be made, we would be here for the next four hours. And we wouldn't be able to eat that wonderful Clemson tiger paw dessert that McCoy's brought to me. This is the truth of God. Let it enter our hearts and minds. Let us embrace it. First of all, we see God's wrath revealed in verses 18 through 25. The Apostle Paul introduces the letter, of course, to the church at Rome by clearly communicating that he was set apart to preach the gospel. He was set apart, Paul was, to proclaim to both Jew and Gentile that salvation in Christ is for all who believe. In other words, no matter who you are, no matter where you're from, no matter what you look like, no matter what you've done, mercy and grace and forgiveness are offered in the gospel, freely in Christ. The Messiah was sent from heaven. He was sent to fulfill the requirements of the law, to satisfy God's justice at the cross, and to rise again from the dead on the third day. If anyone were to ask Paul what the main point of the book of Romans was, he would say, the good news, that there is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. That is what Paul would say was the main theme of Romans, and in fact, the whole Bible. But that good news only makes sense in light of the bad news. That good news that was just declared a moment ago only makes sense in light of the bad news. Salvation only makes sense if we are saved from something, and then to something else. That's why the inspired Paul spends two and a half chapters expounding the doctrine of the universal depravity of mankind, of the depravity of men and women and boys and girls all born into sin that have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, both Jew and Gentile, every single one. So at the middle of chapter three, at the end of this long section on the depravity of man, Paul writes that every mouth shall be stopped in the presence of this holy God. Anyone who arrogantly walks into a church and looks condescendingly upon people does not understand the gospel. The gospel is the great humbler and equalizer. We are all sinners. That is the bad news. It's not until we understand the bad news that the good news actually makes sense and shows us how good the good news really is. Look with me in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Here we have a powerful reminder that God does not take sin lightly. Friends, no matter how lightly we may take sin, or how lightly some minister may take sin, or how lightly some denomination may take sin, or how lightly the culture may take sin, it does not in one single way change God's attitude towards sin. He does not shrug his shoulders at sin. No, it says here his wrath is being revealed against it. It's being poured out because of sin. It is being revealed, his wrath is being revealed in part now, but will be revealed in full later. What is God's wrath? One author calls God's wrath his settled indignation. His settled indignation. Another calls it a deeply personal abhorrence for evil. God never is without a settled indignation towards evil. He is not like us in that we go from one emotion to another or have one idea to another, which is always being muddled by sin and our own emotions and our relationships. God is not like that. God is always holy. He is always perfectly love. He is always perfectly wrathful against sin. He is always perfectly just. At the same time, He is always perfectly merciful. God is all of these things always at the same time. God is not neutral when it comes to sin. It is repulsive to His holy nature. As much as our culture tries to dress up sin and make it appealing and woo us away from the holiness of God, God does not shrug His shoulders at sin. God is revealing his wrath. Why? Look at the text. It says right there, it is because of ungodliness, unrighteousness, and the suppression of his truth. Ungodliness most likely refers to man's relationship to God, that we have departed from his holiness and godly living as it concerns our relationship with him. It's a kind of settled irreverence towards God. not acknowledging God for who He is, and living in His presence in that way. Unrighteousness probably refers to man's lack of conformity to God's law, and a reverence towards His Word, and towards His commands. The suppression of the truth is a conscious, selfish, stubborn, and willful pushing down of what one knows is right, in order to do that which we know, deep down, is right. That is what is being expressed here when it's describing mankind. A suppressing of the truth and unrighteousness. I know it to be true, as we're gonna learn here in a minute. I know it to be true, but I'm going to suppress that truth so that I can live according to my own selfish ways and indulge my own sinful pleasures. It's an attempt to suppress any truth that might challenge our sinful Paul begins to unpack these ideas in verse 19. Look there, he writes, for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they, because 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. God's wrath, beloved, is being revealed. Because while God's glorious creation is seen by all, and His divine nature and power are clearly manifested to all, mankind does not worship God, and mankind does not give thanks to Him. Rather, we exchange the glory of God for idols. Idols representing ourselves, idols representing birds, creeping things. Here it seems in this section that Paul is alluding to the days of creation in the early chapters of Genesis. Don't you see it? Look at all of the allusions. We've got him speaking about creation itself there. We have him talking about some of the specifics of creation. birds, animals, creeping things. We have this language of exchanging the glory of God, becoming fools or rather claiming to be wise, they became fools. What was Eve offered by Satan? Eat this and you will be what? Wise. You will have the same wisdom God does. You will be the one who can define your own morality. And so mankind continues to believe the lie, to exchange the truth of God for a lie, the lie of Satan. God's wrath is revealed because mankind has exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. It's incredible here, isn't it? Paul, as he's describing the wickedness of mankind, and then that, crazy exchange that we've made to give up God for creeping things, and animals, and birds, and images of ourselves. To exchange those things. And Paul can't help himself, but when God's name is mentioned, to give a doxology, a word of praise. Who is blessed forever. Amen. It's important. To make a point, lest anyone think that God's wrath is only revealed against sexual deviancy. Somehow God overlooks what we have fooled ourselves into thinking are more acceptable idols. Idols which have replaced God in our lives but may not be seen by others as all that harmful. We need to make sure that we understand this passage is not just about sexual deviancy. It is primarily about idolatry. Anything that holds our primary allegiances and affections over God in our lives is an idol, that which exchanges the truth of God for a lie. Martin Luther put it like this, whatever your heart clings to and confines in, that is really your God, your functional savior, end quote. It could be anything. An idol could be anything. I spent some time in India in the mid-90s and idolatry there was just in your face. It was so obvious. There were statues everywhere that people were lighting incense to and putting vegetables in front of and little glasses of milk and they were making little sacrifices and putting rupees, Indian coins there. It was just so obvious there. And anybody raised in our country would go there and say, yeah, I mean, any connection at all to some kind of Christian spirituality, say, yeah, that would be idolatry right there. But what we too often miss is those things that hold the primary allegiances of our hearts and draw away our chief affections, our idols, whatever they may be. It could be anything. And we cannot move on until we consider the question this text is asking of us. Are we, are you, exchanging the truth of God, God himself, for idols, for lies? giving your chief affection and energies and chief loves to something other than God. Augustine talked about it, the disordered loves of mankind. Something can be rightly loved when it is in its place. But when some thing or idea or dream becomes higher than God and rules your heart and affections, it becomes an idol. And you are no longer worshiping God with your life. You are worshiping that idol. It's interesting, you know, God knit us together and he created us to be worshipers. And so everyone will worship something. That is a fact. That's why we have all kinds of religions around the world. That's why we have people that say, I'm not religious, but then it's obvious they worship whatever it is. I went for a 45 or 50 minute run around the Washington DC mall area, beautiful, running near the monuments and around the Lincoln Memorial. And interestingly, there was a, a, a tent being set up, there were musicians playing, there were signs out, and the biggest atheist society in America was meeting for their annual celebration. They are called the Society for Reason. Of course, the idea is that anyone that's not an atheist is unreasonable. We'll talk about that in a couple of weeks. Everybody worships something, even if it's reason and themselves. First, we see God's wrath revealed in this passage. And here, next, we see God's judgment manifested in verses 24 through 32. Look there with me. 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 the creature rather than the 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 receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Something surely you noticed as I first read this passage was this threefold phrase, God gave them what? Up, God gave them up. He employs Paul does this phrase in verses 24, 26 and 28. And each time it is used in relation to unnatural or illicit sexual behavior. Now, all of this is so important friends. What does Paul mean by God gave them up? Well, the first thing we want to say is what it doesn't mean. He's not saying that God totally and completely abandons cultures and nations who persist in their sin, that salvation is no longer a possibility. No, as long as a person has breath, there is hope in the gospel. However, it is also equally true as revealed here in our text, that those who persist in unrepentant sin may, according to God's will, be given over to it, to run headlong into sin with no divine restraints. You see, beloved, it is only by the common grace of God that people are ordinarily not as sinful as they could be. Everyone has the capacity to be as sinful as the worst person that ever existed in the world. Everyone. It is only because of the Lord's restraining presence and grace that people are not as bad as they could be in terms of the outworking and manifestation of their sinful hearts. However, what we learn here is that when a stubborn people willfully throw off moral restraints and persist in their wickedness. God, as, now listen, as a part of their judgment against them, as a revealing of his wrath against them, gives them over more fully to what they want. Think for a moment of the downward moral spiral of King Saul in the book of 1 Samuel. He's a madman at the end of his reign. He's inflicting genocide on his own people. He is making things up. He is confused. What is especially sobering about this, friends, is that the final giving over is a giving over of a person to hell, to the place far away from God's loving presence. Indeed, far away from the God that they wanted to be far away from their entire lives. It's a giving a person what they want. It is a mistake to think that people who are suffering in hell are longing to be in the presence of God. They are not. They are longing to be back on the earth, rejecting God and not in hell. That's the only thing they're longing for. those skits you saw in college at FCA where they have the person saying, oh, why didn't someone tell me I wanna be with Jesus now, but I can't because I'm in hell forever. No, that's not how it works. The heart of the damned has been given over to what they want. And while they may not want to suffer in hell, we know that to be true, they would not want to be in heaven in the presence of God because they never wanted that. Once again, this giving over is a part of the revealing of God's wrath and judgment against sin. And what most characterizes, please get this, what most characterizes a people who are being given over to their sin is a departure from God's design and purpose for marriage, sex, and sexuality. When a people are being given over to their sin and idolatry in this way being described by Paul, what becomes most apparent is a departure from God's design and purpose for marriage, sex, and sexuality. We've seen this all throughout church history. Nothing more characterizes a culture that has turned its back on God than bold idolatry, which almost always produces A departure from biblical sexuality. A departure from God's design for marriage and sexuality are almost always related to idolatry. John Stott puts it this way, a false image of God leads to a false understanding of sex. Illicit sex degrades people's humanness. Please hear that. Illicit sex degrades people's humanness, degrades who God made you to be. And then he goes on to write, Sex in marriage between a man and a woman, as God intended, ennobles it, ennobles sexuality. It is a massive downgrade of marriage and sexuality to remove it from God's design. Let's look at the logic of this passage. There are three exchanges that happen. Notice verse 23. There's the exchange of the glory of God for images resembling mortal men and birds and creeping things. There's the first exchange. Oh my goodness, what an exchange. Then there's another exchange, exchanging the truth about God for a lie, verse 25. And what's the fruit of those exchanges? It says in verse 26, the exchange of natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. Do you get the connection between idolatry, the exchanging of the truth about God for a lie, and sexuality that becomes illicit and unnatural? When idolatry is rampant and unchecked, when God is exchanged for lies, God's wonderful and wise design for marriage and sexuality are negotiated and then finally rejected. And remember, it is highly likely that Paul wrote this letter from the city of Corinth, a city notorious for its deviant sexual practices. He is describing in his letter to the Romans what he sees all over in Corinth. and then he knows it's happening in Rome. He writes in verse 24 that God gave them up to a kind of general sexual impurity. Then he gets more specific in verse 26 and describes homosexual behavior. Some say that Paul is only condemning certain forms of homosexual behavior, which I won't go into this morning. but that is a dishonest reading of this text and of the numerous other texts that clearly communicate that homosexual behavior is a sin and a clear departure from God's holy design. Kevin DeYoung has written an excellent book, which we studied in our men's Bible study for several weeks. I want to recommend it to you. It's called, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? It is a balanced, loving, clear, Excellent exposition on the word of God about what it teaches on this topic. I want to recommend it to you. But Kevin DeYoung in this book puts it this way, quote, in Paul's mind, same-sex sexual intimacy is an especially clear illustration of the idolatrous human impulse to turn away from God's order and design. Those who suppress the truth about God as revealed in nature suppress the truth about themselves written in nature. Homosexual practice is an example on a horizontal plane of our vertical rebellion against God. Beloved, many today, even many professing evangelicals are teaching that a homosexual lifestyle is compatible with scripture and the Christian life, that God approves of it and wants everyone to be happy, to express themselves sexually in any way they think is right. But what we must understand here this morning is that God's purpose and design for marriage and sexuality are clearly set forth in Scripture, as are the clear departures from that design and purpose. Many are doing exegetical gymnastics to get the Bible to approve of their natural sexual behavior, or what they claim is their identity. But the plain reading of Scripture tells us the truth. In Genesis 19, we see that one of the major sins listed for The condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah is the sin of homosexuality, is where we get the word sodomy. Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 make very clear that unnatural sexuality is an abomination to God. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Timothy 1, eight through 11 also mentions homosexuality and a list of practices that are done by the unholy and the profane. As I mentioned before, the Bible is not chiefly about homosexuality and homosexuality is not the only sin listed in the Bible. In fact, in our text for this morning, verses 28 through 32 list all kinds of sins. But let us not read our Bibles improperly. because Paul brings out the fact that this institution called marriage, which is the foundation of family, breaks down so significantly what God intends for culture and society, that it is brought out in a very distinct and specific way. to demonstrate that when these kinds of things are happening, it is a demonstration of the revealing of God's wrath and judgment and his pulling away and giving people over to their lustful, sinful desires. Another manifestation of the sexual confusion of our day is the transgender movement. It's in our community. Not too long ago, I spoke with someone from our church who was ushered to the ladies' dressing room of a store in Mount Pleasant by a 60-something-year-old man who was dressed up as a woman with bright red lipstick, high heels, and a very deep voice. Should we be encouraging and celebrating this kind of behavior? Should we be okay with affirming a boy who declares himself to be a girl or a girl who declares herself to be a boy? Well, the answer is no. It would be unloving to do so. The transgender movement is another clear manifestation of mankind's confused rebellion against God, telling God that they were not wonderfully and fearfully made, telling God that when they were knit together in their mother's womb, according to Psalm 139, that God messed up, that he made a mistake. Their DNA is gender-specific, their anatomy is gender-specific, and yet they declare themselves to be that which they are not. and which they feel themselves to be. Beloved, let there be no mistake about it. It's a rejection of objective truth, plain reality, and clear reason to hold these positions. The transgender movement replaces objective reality for the utter subjective. It is hell that a person can now declare themselves to be something they're not. A community which has worked hard to disprove God by objective scientific arguments is now happy to completely ignore human anatomy and what is obvious to everyone. It is the suppressing of truth and unrighteousness so clearly seen. It is already causing profound chaos in schools and businesses and locker rooms and showers and athletic teams. I read this week of a transgender who won a girls state track meet. And as you would guess, a lot of girls and families and school were upset that the champion of the girls division was actually a boy. It's all so crazy, but that's what happens when you uproot God's design. While the Bible doesn't say anything specific about transgenderism, it does communicate that God made male and female, and that the biological features of males and females correspond to who God made us to be and the roles we were meant to play in marriage and family and society, as we considered last time we were together. Friends, maleness and femaleness is not simply a social construct. No, maleness and femaleness are very much connected to our bodies, to whom God made us to be. Those who are confused about their sexual identity need to receive biblical counsel and prayer. They need to receive the gospel, not affirmation in their departure from what God made them to be and who God wants them to be. Many sentimental arguments are put forth to generate sympathy for those who want to live outside of God's design for marriage and sexuality, And we know there are genuine struggles, genuine difficulties in the hearts and minds of fallen human beings in all kinds of areas. And that is true when it comes to this struggle that people have with their identity. While being humble and compassionate, we do not want to conform to the spirit of the age. We want to conform to scripture. That's not only what's best for us, it's what's best for everyone, to those who see us and know us, to point people to God's truth and to his design. For only God's created order will bring true blessing. We must hold fast to the truth. This is a witness to the world. As we are, as we learned in the first message in this series, contramundum pro mundo. We are against the world for the world. We say no to sin and we say no to falsehood and lies. So we are against the world in that sense for the world, because then we become a witness of the truth to the world and we do not conform to it. Finally, God's gospel is declared clearly in this book, not so clearly in this particular text because it's an ongoing commentary on the depravity of man, but Romans. Tells us the bad news. That we are sinners. All of us. Before God. We are all equal. All equally in need of grace and forgiveness in Christ. This bad news leads us to that good news. That in Christ there is redemption. In Christ there is reconciliation with God. In Christ we are rescued from God's wrath and from His judgment. In Christ there is mercy. In Christ there is salvation from sin. And salvation to a life of growing holiness. You see, the Bible says very clearly to Christians that you were these things, but now you are this. 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11. Or do you not know, this is Paul writing to Christians in Corinth. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were..." What? "...some of you." Such were some of you. We could say that about this room right here. Such were some of you living this way, practicing these things. You were these things. But you were, it says, washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And that is the gospel that we trumpet forth. We do not look down upon those struggling with same-sex attraction. We do not... speak ill of those who are struggling with those kinds of identity issues with their sexuality and sexual orientation. We humbly believe the truth and engage people with love and compassion and humility, not backing off one inch from the truth, but loving them as we share it with them. That is the call to how we are called to live in our culture, which has thrown off Christian morality when it comes to sex, marriage, and sexuality. So let us together embrace Christ. Let us rest in him. Let us believe the gospel, that it is the good news for ourselves and for everyone. And let us ourselves flee from sexual sin. I didn't expound upon the various times and the passages that I read on all the kinds of sexual sin. The sins of pornography that's rampant in our day. The sin of adultery. The sins of other kinds of sexual immorality. It's rampant. Fornication before marriage. All of these things. Let us, as Ephesians 5.3 says, flee from sexual sin and let it not be named among us. Let us not allow it into our lives. Let us not allow sin, these sexual sins, to grow up like weeds in the garden of our hearts. Thirdly, let us conform to God's design and purpose for marriage and sexuality. There is no greater blessing in the world than a godly, loving, biblical marriage between a man and a woman. Let us not seek to replace that with something so much less. All the exchanging going on in Romans 1 is so, so unnatural. Let us not exchange God's blessed design for marriage for something else. Fourthly, let us, again, humbly reach out to those who need the gospel. Last night you may have read someone walked into a gay bar in Orlando, Florida and opened fire with guns. At least 20 people have been killed, over 40 have been injured. Someone walked into a gay bar and began firing. You know, my guess is no one in this room would ever think of doing such a thing. And yet how often do we, with our words and our attitudes, start firing away at homosexuals, almost giving them the impression that there is no hope for them? Shame on us if we demonstrate more of a homophobic attitude than an attitude of grace and hope in the gospel, amen? We must communicate that. Again, you don't give in, You don't give in, but you tell the truth with gentleness and respect and love. That is the way we are to respond in the midst of our post-Christian culture. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your words. We thank you for all that you teach us in your word about how to believe and how to live in the midst of a post-Christian culture. Help us. to stand firm in your truth and to not back off one inch of it, but also to go forward, to take that step forward with love and compassion and kindness towards those who have very real struggles with things, even as we have struggles with various things. Lord, would you grant grace and mercy, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.