This week, the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, historically liberal seminary, made some, let's just say some waves with a couple of tweets they made this week. They made some waves with people who are theologically conservative, but also with people who are theologically on the liberal side of things, graduates of their own seminary, when they posted this tweet along with a picture. Today in chapel we confessed to plants. Together we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt, and sorrow in prayer, offering them to the beings who sustain us, but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants of your life? And we're tempted to chuckle, but this is real life from a professing Christian seminary. And the picture was a group of people gathered in a chapel with plants and confessing to them as the beings who sustained them. Well, with all the rash of tweets that came back to them, they began a 10-tweet response about why this was good and why this was something that we should be accepting. And I won't read you all the tweets, and they are treats too, but I won't read you all the tweets, but here are a few of them. We've had many questions about yesterday's chapel conducted as a part of, and the name of the professor is here, of their class, and the class is called extractivism, a ritual liturgical response. That's the name of the class they took. And no, I don't know what that means, but it produces rituals like this. In worship, our community confess the harm we've done to plants, speaking directly in repentance, this is a beautiful ritual. We need to unlearn habits of sin and death. And part of that work must be building new bridges to the natural world. And that means creating new spiritual and intellectual frameworks by which we understand and relate to the plants and animals with whom we share the planet. Listen, churches have a huge role to play in this endeavor. Theologies that encourage humans to dominate and master the earth have played a deplorable role in degrading God's creation. We must birth new theology, new liturgy to heal and sow, replacing ones that reap and destroy. You hear what they're saying, right? Genesis one is wrong and we are right. So we need new theologies and new liturgies in order to connect with the universe around us. Now there's more tweets. There are more tweets. I planned on reading them, but I don't think I can. You get the point, right? This has created a bunch of discussion and it should create a bunch of discussion. It is a clear, It would be comical if it wasn't so dangerous, but it's a clear example of Romans 1 in action, suppressing the truth with a lie and worshiping the creation rather than the creator. Romans 1, the theology, the revealing the wrath of God side of Romans 1 is on display all around us and we must learn from the scriptures what God's will is in these areas and how we love those caught up in the lies. Now, this is an example of suppressing the truth. But we're also dealing this week with the conclusion of a sermon from Leviticus in which a specific sexual act is given as the punishment for suppressing the truth in Romans chapter one. It is something that if we were talking about this 10 years ago, it would be still yet future, not commonplace. But now it almost seems like passe to speak of this because we're already entrenched in the acceptance in our world over this and moved on to other frontiers. Not only plants, but other frontiers. And yet the root of this is God's creation mandate and what he's done in creation. Will and Grace was a sitcom that ran from 1998 to 2006. It was revived in 2017. And as I understand it, its final season is about to enter. If you look at the ratings, you understand why the final season is about to happen. And I confess to never of watching this. Some of you may have seen this before. I've never seen the show, but I know its premise. The premise, which is a male gay lawyer and a relationship with this female straight friend. And the title of this, as it debuted in 1997, this was kind of radical. Today, it's a little tame, isn't it? But in 1997, this was radical. Remember, this is one year after the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, in which the preamble, our government said that homosexuality was considered a sin by most Americans. That was in our lifetime. So the premise is much more tame than it is today, but we don't need to know much more than to know the title of the characters, Will and Grace. That tells the purpose of the show. The gay man who has the will to come out of the closet and the will to stand firm in what he believes, and the woman who is straight who gives him grace all the time. He stands for all of the homosexual community. She stands for the world that should give them grace and full acceptance. And now we're living in a world where that has become true. That is the thought process. So this morning, I want us to talk about will and grace. God's will and God's grace. I'm sure I'm not the first preacher to take a spin on this, to preach on God's view of sexuality. But we want to look at God's will and God's grace and hear me say, we need to speak the truth, but we need to do it in love. We need to speak the truth, but we cannot be a people who just everybody knows what we're against and nobody knows what we're for. So my goal here today is not to intersect with every single conversation you'll have with somebody who has a different view than the Bible has on sexuality. but to give you an apologetic to make sure you know where to prove what the scripture says in your own life, to prove it, and to use that as the tool that God intends his scriptures to be, and that is when they're preached, he draws people into repentance and saves them. It's the beginning of the gospel, yes? The beginning of the gospel is to understand that men and women are what? Sinners, right? That's the beginning of the gospel. Why do we need grace if we can't understand that we are sinners? But grace we need, grace you needed, and grace you need currently. So this morning, we are going to talk about this issue. We're gonna talk about it boldly from the scriptures, but I want to admonish you that we are to speak the truth in love. A French philosopher wrote over a hundred years ago, he who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth, makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers. The apostle Paul said it this way, speak the truth in love. Jesus said it this way, love your neighbor as yourself. So today we wanna try to marry all of those together as we conclude our sermon on Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. So just to remind you from where we've been, where we started in Leviticus, two weeks ago, we made it through part of the sermon, and it was clear we weren't gonna make it through all of it, and we weren't gonna make it through all the text in a helpful way. So we just kind of abruptly put the brakes on, and now we return to it. But what we learned that we were looking at Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, I'll be gone the next three weeks. We'll have other men from our congregation preaching, but we'll return to Leviticus 19 when I return, because 18 and 20 are very tied together. 18 gives us lots of truth about God's plan in families, in his family, as well in the old covenant, as well as in their communities. And then chapter 20 primarily gives us the judgments on those prohibitions. And it's bookended throughout there about what happens if we obey God and what happens if we don't obey God. Directed toward these old covenant people, Israel, and their life as they're coming into the land. It's the covenant God speaking to his people. So we remember that we see all over the place things like I am Yahweh. I am the Lord your God. I am Yahweh. So God is speaking to his people and it's the covenant relationship where God says I am your God and you are my people and God keeps his promises in the covenant. So that's what overshadows 18 and 20 as we tie them together. So the first thing we looked at is why must we obey? Why must the people that God wrote to, His Old Testament people, obey God? And it's the same for us. Because I am the Lord your God and because I am holy. We said that this section, starting in chapter 17, begins what's often known as the Holiness Code in Leviticus, from here to the end of the book, or at least through chapter 26. Because God says He is holy. We'll deal with this even more when we go look at chapter 19. But these are the foundations. He is their God, He is the Lord their God, Yahweh, their covenant God, and He is holy, so they must obey Him. And we looked at that from the text. And then the second thing we saw, the second answer to the questions, we kind of superimposed four questions over these two chapters, was how must you obey me? And we looked at, one aspect through sanctified sexual relations in your family. And that's where we went through all of those different relationships that were close familial relationships that were not to be engaged in marriage. And so the prohibition was that there was not to be any sexual activity, but that is representative of marriage. You were not to intermarry closely. And we looked at that, but also through sanctified sexual relations in your communities. And we looked at almost all of those. We kind of stopped when we got to the verse where I want you to turn to now. Look at Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. Look at verse 22. We did a lot of summarizing last week because we didn't need to read every one of the do not uncover the nakedness of scenarios. But when we get to verse 22, we're in the middle of more of the community standards, not close family relationships. And we read, you shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Now of all of the different things prohibited in this chapter, this is the only one specifically referred to as an abomination. Something that's heinous to God. Now in a few verses, all of them are referred to as abominations. But this is the one in its description that abomination is brought to. Jump over to chapter 20, verse 13. Remember, chapter 20 brings many of the punishments on the specific prohibitions. Chapter 20, verse 13. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, that's what was prohibited, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, their blood is upon them. Both of them. Now it's gonna be important for us to understand that God is talking about a specific act that violates his commands and both parties, which we'll develop a little bit more as we go through the scriptures, both parties are found guilty at this willful act. Now what we need to do to understand this, we have to have an answer for this, right? This is something that's in front of us. This is something that is accepted in our society in ways that the last several years that hasn't been accepted before. And so we are the people who are standing on truth. We don't have what maybe 20 years ago we had, that the predominant viewpoint in America was that this was wrong. We don't have that anymore, and yet we still have the truth of God that transcends cultures. We still have the truth of God that transcends 20 years ago, 200 years ago, 2,000 years ago, that God's truth stands and it does not change because it flows from his character, which does not change. So our foundational suppositions say we have to understand what the word of God says and we still have to love our neighbors as ourselves and pray for them. And so the condemnation of sinners comes from God revealed in his word. The proclamation of what God says comes from his people. So we are proclaimers, but we are also lovers. and we talk all the time in our church about being a church that is right behind the front lines. We're not up on the front lines as in pushing the front line, but from the front lines of the culture wars will come wounded people. They will come because all of the different gender issues and sexuality issues that have been foisted upon them, there will be people who will see the darkness, the bleakness, the no end road that that leads them to, and they will forsake it if they only forsake it because it didn't provide for their needs like they thought it would. They may not be convicted of sin, they just may feel the pain of the emptiness of the lifestyles they have been going after. and they will be returning from the symbolic front lines, and they need churches to be able to welcome them in. I wonder if we would be that welcoming church. And we have to define that, don't we? Because some churches, by welcoming, what do they mean? Come in, sit down, and stay the same. What we mean, come in, sit down, meet our God, and be transformed. That's what we mean. So we wanna be a welcoming place. We wanna be a place where people can come in and be loved. Because they, even if they're enemies of God, which makes them spiritual enemies of us, we are to love them. They need to hear the truth that we hear. And they need to respond to the truth that we hear. Now, when it comes to membership in our church, will we say you are welcome as you are without repentance and change? No, we would not do that. No more than we would do that for someone who is a liar. holding on to their joy of lying and saying they have a right to be a liar. Or a philanderer who wants to, I wanna keep my wife, I wanna have any kind of other contact that I want. Or somebody who is a thief, or someone who is a drunkard, or someone in any of the other categories that the scripture says will not inherit the kingdom of God. We want to have all of those say, you are welcome, but meet our God and be transformed. into a life that glorifies him. And if that is rejected and repentance doesn't follow, then this is not a welcoming place because what they receive is the word of God, which says what? You are walking in your condemnation. You're still breathing and Christ hasn't returned, so there's still hope. but you are walking in your condemnation, and we cannot affirm that as something that brings glory to God. So we need to know what we believe, and we need to have winsome ways in interacting with those around us who believe this. And don't think they're all out there, right? We have a tendency to think, well, they're all out there, they're not in here. Do you really believe that there's nobody among us struggling with their sexuality? In today's day and world where that's all over the place, I'm sure there are people struggling and we want to present winsomely the truth as we invite them to that truth and invite them to our God who has given that truth. So we are going to endeavor to do that, but we first need to understand the scriptures, which as often as the case start in Genesis. Turn there. I'm not going to turn you to every passage today. We're not even going to look at every passage. I'm going to have you turn to three or four. I'm going to reference a couple of others. And we want to build our biblical theological case of what God says, not what we say, but what God says about how he has created men and women. Now tangentially, we're gonna have to talk about the gender issue as well, which is not, we don't find a lot of verses about assuming a different gender or having gender be considered a social construct instead of the way one was born, a physical idea. But it flows directly from the idea of the act of homosexuality and what God says about that. It flows directly from that. So we'll deal with all of this. In Genesis chapter one, look at verse 26. We're in the creation account. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male, and female, he created them. So there's a foundational statement for us from God, from creation, right? From creation, God said he created male and female when he created the human race. That's it, that's what he created. And physically, we understand that, don't we? Physically, we understand that there are two genders, male and female, all under the human race, all created in the image of God, and all created by God. Verse 28, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. So stopping right there, fruitful and multiplying means we need one male and one female, right? No other combination of anything can provide that in the human realm except for a male and a female as God has created. So God has created and he's commanded and he's created in a way that his commands can be followed. Now I know there's much more we can say about all these verses we're going to look at but we need to keep our focus in one area or we'll have a third sermon that stretches for another month and I don't want to do that. So we need to keep our focus on our topic. Verse 28 again, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for worship, for confession. Now what's it say? For food. So God created in a specific way and he gave a command to them that can only be carried out in the way he created them because he's a gracious God. He doesn't command us to do things that are outside of our ability to do. He equips us to do those. Jump over to chapter two. And let's jump in at verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord 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. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. There's a connection between the man and the woman in creation that foreshadows the connection that will happen and be fruitful and multiply. This is God giving us a description of what is assumed in chapter one as we move further into it. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Eesh and Eshah, very close Hebrew names to show the close connection between man and woman. Therefore, verse 24, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Becoming one flesh is the description of their relationship tied together in the Holy Spirit and a description of what they become when they are fruitful and multiply. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. So here we have this foundation of what God created in the human race, a man and a woman, connected very much so with the command to be fruitful and multiply, and that purpose of that creation command, I know we've been through all this before, but we have to set this stage for the rest, that purpose of that command is so the righteousness of God would spread throughout the world. so that the holiness of God would be seen, and the children, and the children's children, and the children's children would take that holiness, that righteousness, and spread God's righteousness throughout the world. Now, we know that the fall happens, and so that isn't going to happen with them. They're expelled from the garden. And over and over and over, after the flood, with all the patriarchs, this creation command is given again and again and again. God never goes away from it. It's his plan. to have his people spread his righteousness and their progeny come to faith in God as well, in Christ, and spread that righteousness throughout the world. And that happens in the spiritual sense as we're waiting for the new heavens and new earth. So there is a pattern set and a plan set by God that is distorted at best and destroyed at worst when we get outside of this plan. Well, if we went to Genesis 19, we would find in Genesis 19 a story that you know very well, Sodom and Gomorrah. Even the name of the town itself, Sodom, has lent its name to this very act throughout history. Sodom and Gomorrah is this heinous picture of a whole community that wants to come in and have their way, be intimate with, with a guest, a male guest. It's a homosexual encounter that is being demanded And God judges them for that. And in that, He judges them for that. And there's a constant debate among certain liberal scholars that, well, it's not really about their homosexuality. It was their aggressiveness. It was the attempted rape. Or it was hospitality. Those guests wanted to stay in the community. Those guests were angels by the way, representatives of God. They wanted to stay in the town center and they should have shown them hospitality when they didn't show them hospitality. That's what God judges. No. Because in the text itself of this and in Judges 19 where we have exactly, well not exactly, but very same type of story with the Gibeonites, there's pretty strong language used about what is being done and God judges them. And in Jude 7, we read these words about Sodom and Gomorrah. So the New Testament reflection on Sodom and Gomorrah is this. Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires, remember those words, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Judges 19, the same scenario in Gibeah happens, and the homosexuality is called acting wickedly and a vile thing. So there is no room to say that Genesis 19 is a representative of judgment because of lack of extending fellowship. It's a further act than that, and the Bible gives witness to it itself. Well, turn to Romans 1. I told you we're gonna move through this quickly, but we have to move through it. And I'm not going to preach every single passage we go to, but we need to build the case of what God says and what God thinks. Look at verse 16 first. We set the stage for what follows. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. So there, there's the gospel for us, revealed in Christ. It's what's preached by the apostles. Why is the gospel needed? Verse 17, or 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So there is the foundational thing that's going on, a suppression of the truth. And you might say, well, what truth? How do we know what truth? What's our context here? Look at the next verse. 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 and the things that have been made. So they, that is those who are unrighteous, who are suppressing the truth, So they are without excuse. And here's the description. For although they knew God, how did they know God? Through His creation. Through what He revealed about His divine nature and His character through creation. For although they knew God, they did not honor him, the word is for glorify, they did not honor or glorify him as God, or give thanks to him, but instead of honoring, glorifying, giving thanks, they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Now listen to what happens next. If you remember when we went through and studied Romans, you remember these three great exchanges that are here. There's an exchange and then God gives over. There's an exchange and then God gives over. There's an exchange and then God gives over. You could circle, they're circled in my Bible so I don't forget this central portion of this text. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and, verse 23, how did they become fools? Exchange the glory of the immortal God. Remember, they did not give glory and honor in verse 21. They exchanged that glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creepy things, creeping things. Therefore, the exchange just happened, verse 24, therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. So God gave them over to that as punishment for their sin, as judgment. Why? Here's a description again. Because they what? They exchanged the truth about God. Remember, they're suppressing the truth with a lie. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Doesn't that verse make you fearful? For those involved in the Union Theological Seminary thing, that they worshiped the plants as their creator and sustainer. I shouldn't say creator, they said sustainer. That gives me fear for them. Because Romans 1 is so clear that that is part of the lie that leads to the judgment that we're having to deal with today. If we know the truth and don't bellow it out, we're partnering with them. Verse 26, for this reason, Second exchange has happened in verse 25. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchange 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." Do you see those words? Those words that are descriptions of what is exchanged and what they pursued? Natural relations are, they exchanged the natural relations for those who are contrary to nature. Well, how do we know that? We just read that in Genesis 1. What is natural? What God has created. And they said, no, we're not going to do things that way. We are going to worship the creator themselves and do what we want to do in spite of what God has done. And God has given them over that for suppressing the truth about God to begin with. Do you see the pattern? What they're engaged in is God's judgment. We're not saying that engaging in this activity will bring God's judgment. We're saying engaging in this activity is evidence of God's judgment. That's what Romans 1 teaches. This is why we need to be so passionate and long-suffering with those caught up in this sin as we love them and give them the gospel. They're already receiving this judgment that is being piled upon one on another for their unbelief, and they're replacing their idolatry, their worship of themselves, over worship of God. It should break our hearts. It shouldn't make us mad, it should break our hearts. It shouldn't make us go, y'all get away from us. It should say, you need to come in here and hear the truth because this is the way we love people. We don't love them by saying it's okay for doing what you feel like doing when we know what they feel like doing is a direct violation of what God commands and it is an expression of the judgment of God that they should know. And they receive in themselves the due penalty for their error. Look at verse 28, 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. And they were filled with, now this is important for us. It's tempting for us to say, see, homosexuality is the worst thing in the world that you could do. And up till now, we'd say, man, it might be. But what Paul is saying, this is the clearest picture I can come up with of suppressing the truth for a life. Do you hear all the creation language in Romans 1? That's why we started in Romans 1. The creation language in Romans 1, Paul is thinking about creation. That's what's natural, not this. That's why he uses these terms of that they're worshiping the animals and other things. He's talking about they're worshiping themselves because they're created beings and they're worshiping the created beings instead of the creator. And we're really tempted to put that at the top of the heap, and we cannot do that. It may be the most picturesque thing we can think of to show dishonoring the natural relation, but look at verse 29. Well, let's start in 28 so we keep it in context again. I know I've already read part of this. 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're doing it. This is what they want to do. This is the carnal desires. This is what men do without Christ. And he gave them over to do that without putting any restraints in their life. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Now this is what many professing Christians are in danger of, giving approval to what God has called unnatural, that what God has called not only sinful but called judgment. Now this would be great fodder in our guns to shoot all of them, right? I don't mean physically, I mean with arguments, shoot it all. Give them this, boom, done. You don't wanna listen to this, I don't have any time for you. And yet, do you see the depth of depravity that they're walking in? Do you see why they need to hear this truth? Now, let me say. There are many discussions you can have with people who are either walking in this lifestyle or defending this lifestyle. And many of them are philosophical discussions, right? They're philosophical discussions in which they try to point out your fallacies in your argument and you try to point out their fallacies in their argument. And I'm not saying there's not a place for that. But how many of you in this room have ever had one of those conversations with anybody justifying their sin, and all of a sudden their rational side, their philosophical side said, oh, I see. I think I'll believe in your Jesus. It's happened, right? I'm not saying it's not happened. But most of the time when people are in this, this isn't their core held belief. Their core held belief is I wanna do what I wanna do and this justifies it. And when we come in and start talking with them, we can have those discussions, but they will lead us all the way down to the end of the road and you will never preach the gospel to them. Because when you move from one argument to another to another, they're controlling the show. I've told you before the example of me when I was in seminary and sitting as a security guard where people had to call in from all these different other places at Kansas City Power and Light and check in with me. And one of those guys was a Mormon. He was a reformed Mormon. Now that doesn't mean reformed like we call ourselves reformed. It means we're just not like the old Mormons. We're reformed Mormons. Two solid years, he wanted to engage me with all of these trivial things about third heavens and spirit wives and all of that. And for two solid years, every night that I was on duty, four times he would call if he was on duty and he'd wanna talk about that. I said, I'm not gonna talk to you about that. I wanna know from you one question, to you, who is Jesus? Because until we settled that, none of the rest of it mattered, and I would be chasing rabbits with him forever. This is the same thing. For us, it's, okay, I understand what you're saying, I don't agree with what you're saying, but here's the question for you. To you, who is Jesus? Because if they don't have an answer for that, it's time for you to introduce them. If they do have an answer for that, it's time for you to show where they have a misunderstanding of Jesus. Because when they have a right understanding of Jesus, now they may keep going down their same road, but you have preached the gospel to them, and they have heard, and they stand more guilty. Now, they may not change right then. They may change later on. You planted a seed with them. You don't ever know what God is gonna do. But if you reject that person without preaching the gospel and they go tell all their friends what happened, you think you're gonna get many more chances to love people who are caught up in this kind of sin? It's the gospel that saves them, not a philosophical argument. It is the truth of the scriptures of Jesus Christ, not any movement in there. This gets in that whole apologetics question, right? My apologetic is a presupposition that men or women who are lost do not understand the scriptures. until the Holy Spirit grants them understanding and begins to draw them to himself. And until then, I don't have anything else to do but preach the gospel, because debating philosophy to a dead man is not going to preserve anything in their life. So I'm not saying don't engage in that. Maybe a conversation or two about that will lead to an openness to the gospel, but we have the gospel to preach because these folks are under judgment, and God has given them over to their base desires. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I'm not going to put all of this whole chapter in context, but it's dealing with sexual immorality within the church. It is in chapter five with a man who has his stepmother. It is later on in chapter six where the command to flee sexual immorality is given. I wanna focus on verse nine and 10 and then come back to verse 11. 1 Corinthians 6, nine. 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. Okay, so what do we have here? We have practices that are sinful that people are engaging in without repentance. We're not talking about people who are struggling in different things and repent and return to the gospel. We're talking about people who are struggling without repentance, and this is the marking of their life, and they do not care. The Bible says they will not inherit the kingdom of God, which means simply what? They will not have eternal life with God. They will have eternal life punished. So this is an important distinction for us to make that these are unrepentant, repetitive behaviors that people are doing without any concern of what happens to them or what it does to God. Now right at the middle of that is neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor, and we've dealt with some of those already in Leviticus, nor men who practice homosexuality. Two words, maybe your translation has effeminate or men who lie with men, effeminate or homosexuality. There are two words here and the footnote of the ESV helps you understand that these two words are probably most likely talking about the passive and aggressive partner in a homosexual relationship. The one that's aggressive and the one that's passive. Both of them engaged on their own. One is aggressive and one is passive. Now remember, in Leviticus, what did we read the punishment was? It was for both of them. And the word was used there, for both people, assuming the passive one and the aggressive one. I'm not gonna fill any more details. I think you know what I mean, what's going on here. But both of them are condemned. Now here's the thing you need to know. I don't go into a lot of Greek stuff when I preach, but you need to know this even if you don't know Greek. Because it's directly related to Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. The word behind that ESV translates at the end of verse 9, who practice homosexuality, is a compound word. Two Greek words that are used that mean men and bed. Men lying in bed with men. Those two words are put together by Paul, and before Paul wrote them in 1 Corinthians, it also occurs in 1 Timothy 6, another passage that mentions homosexuality is a sin against the Lord, that those who are unrepentant will not inherit the kingdom of God. Before Paul wrote these words, this word did not exist. This compound word, man in bed, arsenoskoite, arsenokoite, the S, the sigma drops off when they're combined, that word did not exist. Where did Paul get it? See, one of the arguments is, well, we don't know what Paul meant because it didn't exist anywhere else. So you're saying he means homosexuality, but I think he might mean something else. I think he might mean that this is a case of rape or this is a case of pedophilia or something like that. No. Where do you think Paul got the word? Guess what Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 have when it says men shall not lie with men. The Greek translation of Leviticus 20 and Leviticus 18 says arsenos koite. So when Paul says this in 1st Corinthians 6 and when he says this in 1st Timothy chapter 1, he's reading Leviticus and putting those two words together. And he uses that in the New Testament, he gets it from Leviticus because Paul knows these scriptures. So when we try to separate Some people, not we, when somebody tells you you need to separate the Old Testament from the New and say, listen, these commands against homosexuality need to go the same way that the commands against bacon and crabs and lobsters go, we don't have to worry about those anymore, we shouldn't have to worry about this anymore. You are equipped to go to the New Testament and say, listen, they're exactly the same. The New Testament and the Old Testament both preach this. Jude 7, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1, Romans 1, Genesis 19, Judges 19. It all flows from Genesis 1. And you can say, don't be deceived by this. Do you know where this leads you if you continue to suppress the truth that was shown to you in creation and I'm showing you in the scriptures? Because it is the scriptures that the Spirit will use to convict people of their sin. We use the scriptures. You say, well, they don't believe the scriptures. Well, of course they don't. They wouldn't be arguing these things if they believed the scriptures. But the scriptures are what is powerful as a two-edged sword. The scripture is what is available to the Holy Spirit to expose our sin to his grace and his mercy. So we should do, we're doing a disservice to people if we don't show them from the scriptures whether they believe it or not. And they're gonna go away and say, well, you're just an unloving bigot. I'm sorry you feel that way. But if that was who I was, I'd leave this alone. It wouldn't be worth my time to go through all this with you and receive this kind of backlash if talking to you about it wasn't a mark of my love. Because the same God I'm telling you about tells me to love you. You hate my God. My scriptures say that that means you're my enemy. But that same God says I'm supposed to love you. And if this is your end reward, would I love you if I didn't tell you? Now you're responsible for it. So this is the way we engage people. Now look at, you should still be in 1 Corinthians chapter six, look at verse 11. The best words in the world follow this, right? And such were some of you. All of these things that are mentioned in nine and 10, writing to believers, there are believers who used to be involved in all of this stuff, but something has changed. Somebody entered into a philosophical discussion with them and convinced them that the truths of Jesus were true. No! What does it say? But you were watched, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. There is a transformation required to walk away from our own idolatry. That transformation is given to us by God through the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit and we preach that transformation. If they reject it, that's on them. God's long-suffering toward them is meant to lead them toward repentance. So it is a loving thing. And we teach it, and we show them this, not with any snarl, not with any anger, but with tears and a broken heart. I don't usually read things directly from a book, but two weeks ago, I recommended this book by Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? I don't know if anybody went out and bought it or anybody went out and read it, but I told you he's a pastor. He also teaches at a seminary, but he's been a pastor in East Lansing and now in Charlotte or somewhere in the southeast, and he's on staff, I think, at Reformed Theological, it would be Charlotte, I think he's on staff at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte. He's a pastor at heart. Excellent book. It covers this and more. I didn't get it from him, but if you wanna see this in print and have it in your library, without having to go back and find a sermon, it's all and more in here. But at the end, his pastor's heart comes through, and he talks about how are we supposed to talk with this to people? Because when we say this, we're immediately pigeonholed as unloving or bigots or whatever. And he says, we have to talk to people in the camp that they're in. And so he says, if we are speaking to cultural elites who despise us and our beliefs, we want to be bold and courageous. If we are speaking to strugglers who fight against same-sex attraction, we want to be patient and sympathetic. It doesn't mean we withhold the truth, but we're patient and sympathetic. We understand that we struggle with sin, right? Yes, you do struggle with sin. If you don't, we have other problems. Please come and see me. Because we struggle with sin. We're just not struggling with that sin. and the sin that you're struggling with, you want people to be patient and sympathetic even as they tell you the truth. Thirdly, if we are speaking to sufferers who have been mistreated by the church, we want to be winsome and humble. If we are speaking to shaky Christians who seem ready to compromise the faith for society's approval, now you run into people like that every single day, whether you know it or not. We want to be persuasive and persistent. They're professing believers. If they're professing believers, the one thing that we can do, call them back to the truth of the word and their profession, which says, he is our God, we are his people, and we are obeyed by the power of his spirit, so we are persuasive and persistent. If we are speaking to those who are living in the scriptures, if we are speaking to those who are living as the scriptures would not have them live, we want to be straightforward and earnest. And if we are speaking to belligerent Christians who hate or fear persons who identify as gay or lesbians, we want to be clear and corrective. Now, all those different people require the same truth with a different heart from you because what you want to see is conforming to the truth of God's word. Then he has 10 commandments for the church. We will encourage our leaders to preach through the Bible verse by verse and chapter by chapter that they might teach the whole counsel of God, even the unpopular ones, Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, and avoid riding hobby horses, even popular ones. Check for us, right? Whether you like it or not, that's what we get. Verse by verse, even the uncomfortable verses. Two, we will tell the truth about all sins, including homosexuality, but especially the sins most prevalent in our own communities. That's why we harped on those other sins in Romans and in 1 Corinthians. Three, we will guard the truth of God's word, protect God's people from error, and confront the world when it tries to press us into its mold. Four, we will call all people to faith in Christ as the only way to the Father and the only way to have eternal life. Five, we will speak to all people about the good news that Jesus died in our place and rose again so that we might be set free from the curse of the law, saved from the wrath of God, and welcomed into the holy city at the restoration of all things. Six, we will treat all Christians as new creations in Christ, reminding each other that our true identity is not based on sexuality or self-expression, but on our union with Christ. Now, we haven't dealt with that today. I said there are many things we wouldn't have time to deal with. That's one of them. The whole gender issue is built on identity and where they think they find their sustenance and in their own identity. And we have to remind them that they are lost or saved, they are created in God's image. And I said we would deal with the gender issue, but that falls right into the heels of the next step of after homosexuality. And guess what the next verses deal with in Leviticus 18? Bestiality. Guess what we're talking about now that we've set aside what God says about marriage and what God says about sex. We're talking about bestiality. In our world, people making arguments that that should be allowed to them because we set the truth of God aside first in marriage and then in sex. The Bible is relevant to us. Seven, we will extend God's forgiveness to all of those who come in broken-hearted repentance. Everyone from homosexual sinners to heterosexual sinners, from the proud to the greedy, from the people-pleaser to the self-righteous. Eight, we will ask for forgiveness when we are rude or thoughtless or joke about those who experience same-sex attraction. Nine, we will strive to be a community that welcomes all those who hate their sin and struggle against it. even when that struggle involves failure and setbacks. I'm glad you do that with me. Aren't you glad we do that with you? We need to do that with everyone. Finally, number 10, we will seek to love all in our midst, regardless of their particular vices or virtues, by preaching the Bible. We love by preaching. We love by recognizing evidences in God's grace. We love by pointing out behaviors that dishonor the Lord. We love by taking church membership seriously. We love by exercising church discipline. We love by announcing the free offer of the gospel. We love by striving for holiness together. We love by practicing the one and others of Christian discipleship. And we love by exalting in Christ above all things. You ever heard that stuff before? It's foundational to the Christian life. Well, what happens? What happens if we don't obey Leviticus 18? And we'll close. Leviticus 18, you need to read it. You need to go back there. I know your Bibles are probably already shut, but Leviticus 18. In Leviticus, the disobedience results in, you will make yourselves unclean and be vomited out of the land as the Canaanites are. Look at verse 24. Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, that is the whole chapter, last sermon, this sermon, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean. So the Canaanites and all the other people in the land have become unclean by doing these things. That's why God is telling his people don't do these things because these are sinful and I've driven them out for that. And the land became unclean so that I punished its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants. The land vomited out. Now that's common throughout scripture isn't it? The land created by God yearning and longing for the redemption of the sons of men according to Romans 8 is sensitive when men and women are sinning in a way that does not bring God's glory. So in the same way in Genesis chapter 4 when Cain kills Abel, what does the land do? It cries out against them. Well the land here is vomiting out people that are disobedient to God. It's that metaphor of picturing that even the created order recognizes that the sons of men need to pursue righteousness in God if they will ever be redeemed. Verse 26, but you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, this is where it calls all of the actions abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For the people of the land who were before you did all these abominations so that the land became unclean. Lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For everyone who does any of these abominations, the person who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. Now Israel eventually suffered this penalty, didn't they? They were expelled from the land because of their disobedience to the Lord. Well, that's what happens if you don't obey me. What happens if you do obey me? Look at the last verses of chapter 20, beginning in verse 22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nations that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things and therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, you shall inherit their land and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or anything with which the ground crawls which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy to me for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. Returning to the same thoughts, The nature and character of God driving our obedience so we reflect His nature to a lost and dying world. And we see this completely in 1 Peter chapter 2. You don't need to turn there. This is our admonition today based on everything that we have learned. 1st Peter chapter 2 reminds us that we are people who have the same characteristics as God's people. We are people who are His chosen people. We are people who are holy unto Him. We are to be holy because He is holy. And 1 Peter 2 verse 9 says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Why? That you, believers, using Old Testament language, that you, the church, may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We live according to the gospel. pursuing holiness because he is holy, because we proclaim his excellencies to the world around us who is in darkness. Now Leviticus 18, we have to do that in the sexual realm. 1 Thessalonians chapter four, we need to do that in the sexual realm. 1 Corinthians chapter six, we have to do that in the sexual realm. That is one way that we do it. And we're not looking to have the land that the Israelites look for, we're looking to have the new heavens and new earth. We're looking to have the land that Abraham looked forward to, the land who has a foundation, whose builder is God. And that land, if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, that land will not spit you out. That land, the new heavens and new earth, is created for you and I who are in Christ, who have repented of our sin, who are living according to the Word of the Lord and His holiness. That land welcomes us in. That is the place for the righteous. All the wicked will be kept out. Remember what we learned in Revelation, the last couple of chapters of Revelation. All the wicked will be kept out. All the righteous will be brought in. There is no chance of the land spitting out the people of God, it is fitted and designed for them. And so we should practice that here. Let me close with this quote. If you are in Christ, God has placed in your heart a hunger for holiness. Holiness is no longer the cramped closet you thought it was, but rather a garden of pleasures, an echo from heaven, the beauty of Eden rediscovered, You are not content merely to be counted righteous in Christ, glorious as that is. You yearn also to become righteous like Christ. You want to be holy as he is holy. That's the gift to those who are trusting in Christ. That's the gift we offer to people caught up in sin under judgment as we speak the truth and love and love our neighbors. Father, we are grateful