I invite you to take your Bibles, and we'll turn once again to the verse with which we began last time. You'll find it in the eleventh verse of the second chapter of the first letter of Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 11. Peter writes, "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul." Or, as Phillips paraphrases it, "I beg you, as those whom I love, to live in this world as strangers and temporary residents."

As we saw last time, we find ourselves presently in a context which provides ample opportunity for us to declare our status as resident aliens. We're dealing with what has been referred to as the gay debate. We did not coin the phrase, nor do we necessarily want to suggest for a moment that gay is an adequate explanation or formulation of the experience of those who live with homosexual attitudes and acts. Indeed, in my experience of meeting homosexual people, "gay" in terms of happy, joyful, and fulfilled is probably the least accurate word to describe them.

Nevertheless, the agenda has set the title, and so we use it. If we're going to address this issue, as we've begun to do, it demands from us as Christians to use our minds to think carefully, to use our tongues to speak graciously, and to use our hearts to be able to express genuine love. If we're going to express genuine Christian love, it means being prepared to be hard where the world is soft, being prepared to be tender where the world is brutal, and also being willing to face the charge of bigotry—a charge of bigotry which comes as a result of calling homosexuality what the Bible calls it, namely, sin.

We began last time by noticing that the culture in which we live is confused. If you were not present last Sunday morning, I'm going to give to you the two points which preceded the study this morning and say a little about them by way of introduction. The culture is confused. That is main heading one.

We saw that religion is up and morality is down. Religion is essentially up. Just a casual observation of life, listening to interpersonal conversations in the daily routine of life, makes one keenly aware of the fact that I do not believe that Americans have any notion anymore that science holds the answer to life. That idea is kind of passé, and scientific rationalists are by and large locked away in laboratories where they should be. So that they can use their scientific rationale to help us with issues which we need help with. But they have largely lost their platform to give spiritual answers in a generation that is spiritually hungry.

No, the generation in which we now live is a confused generation which has embraced the age of spirituality. This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, they sang in the 60s, not really knowing what it meant, but it sounded good. And if it was partially there, it's certainly here now in all of its fullness.

Have you noticed how intrigued people are, how the magazines are full of tales which take us beyond ourselves, which take us into interplanetary exploration? How easy it is to turn people's attention to out-of-body experiences. How we can take time to consider and reconsider the questions of UFOs, how reincarnation, once locked in the theology and religion of the Eastern world, is a commonplace discussion around dining tables in the average nuclear family of America.

It is not unusual for our children to ask us the question, "Daddy, Mommy, what is reincarnation? Do you believe in it?" The reason that these fertile minds are able to produce the word and dialogue concerning on it is indicative of this great spiritual quest.

As the family disintegrates around us here, we wonder whether Spielberg didn't have it right in E.T. when the mother, who doesn't have a husband, has a boy who doesn't have a father, and she takes off and goes out of the house, leaving the little boy, Elliot, sick at home.

And Elliot is sick at home, but his mother has no way of caring for him, and so she leaves him and gives him one or two things to take, and she says, "You'll be okay." And so we have the perfect picture of the disintegrated family. There's no mom home, there's no dad present, and there's a little boy sick.

But don't worry, because look what we have in the closet. And out comes E.T. And Elliot cuts his finger. But that's not a problem, because E.T.'s finger lights up, and E.T.'s finger heals. And from another place and another time, the message is clearly sent.

As your nuclear American Western family disintegrates, don't look back. Don't look down. Look up. Because somewhere out there, beyond the big blue sky, someone's thinking of you. It doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't matter if they exist. Because this is the age of spirituality.

And our friends and neighbors have begun to look beyond themselves. Now, that confusion manifests itself in all kinds of ways. That is why, in the present environment, any kind of religion that can be drummed up, that is prepared to offer with its spirituality—whatever that might be—a combination of materialism, optimism, and individualism has got a great future.

Because this is the environment in which materialism, optimism, and individualism is absolutely at the top of the pile. And since we now are these people and have a spiritual quest, give us spirituality which embraces all of these things. We're not so concerned about truth as we are about experience.

And so confused men and women embrace a religion that is easily accessible, that will provide no transcendent ethical norms, that will appeal to human emotion, and that will make no demands on the human will. If you can come up with that, you can gather a crowd. Nobody has any rules. No one makes no demands. No one makes any demands.

And yet it offers optimism, materialism, and individualism. Now, I don't know whether I've gone crazy, but I went home, and I wanted to see one thing out of the Super Bowl from last Sunday night. That was, I wanted to see Garth Brooks sing the national anthem, and I wanted to see what kind of nonsense happened at halftime.

The national anthem was okay, not great, certainly not as good as Whitney Houston. The halftime extravaganza was all that I dreaded it might be. Do you think there's any validity in what I'm saying to you now? Don't you think that that halftime show gathered up the consensus of a confused nation?

Here we have all these people with all different backgrounds, all different views, all different faces, all kinds of obscure perspectives on life. And in the middle of it all, we have a little Messiah-like figure, dressed in white, upon whose visage every eye is centered—millions of people around the world.

And behind him inflates this world. And the world looks on and listens to this song, "Heal the World." There's no how. There's no truth. There's just manifold confusion which appeals to the human will and provides no key as to how we're going to accomplish what is a goal that few would want to stand against.

Now, interestingly enough, this same confusion is in the very first song of Garth Brooks' The Chase album. It is sung carefully and thought-provokingly. It is entitled, "We Shall Be Free." Have you heard it? It made you feel kind of cozy in your car?

Because after all, the idea of freedom we just sang, America the Beautiful, didn't we? The liberation, the freedom that is part of our lives? So it appeals to that, and people are confused, they don't know what they believe, and so it says, "One day we shall be free?"

Listen to it. Shall I sing it? No, sorry. This ain't coming from no prophet, just an ordinary man. Hey, we like that, down there, okay?

There's no transcendence to this. When I close my eyes, I see the way this world shall be when we all walk hand in hand.

Okay? When the last child cries for a crust of bread, when the last man dies for just words that he said, when there's shelter over the poorest head, we shall be free.

Okay? It's a kind of social agenda. We're going to get everything squared up, and there'll be no more homeless people in America. That's fine.

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin, Good. And the first thing we look for is the beauty within. Excellent.

When the skies and the oceans are clean again, then we shall be free. So do you think we're going to clean up the skies and the oceans? Do you think the lion will lie down with the lamb?

Do you think there will be perfect racial harmony? Do you think the poor will no longer be with us? What is that called in the Bible? Where is that experienced in the Bible? Heaven!

Okay? We're not gonna have that, right? Now listen. When we're free to love anyone we choose, when this world's big enough for all different views, when we all can worship from our own kind of pew, then we shall be free.

And kids sing it, and adults hum it, and a confused culture buys it. It's an illusion. Not that we want to stand against the desire to deal with homelessness, not that we want to be anywhere but right leading at the front for racial harmony, but you see what he's saying?

He's saying, whenever you are living in an environment where somebody says that this is how you love, and this is the framework of love, then that is restricting, that is bondage. He is a subscriber to a large homosexual contingency, Garth Brooks, has given large money to the homosexual lobby.

When we can love anyone we choose, then we shall be free. Loved ones, I want to tell you, and I don't want to beat it to death, but this is a confused society. We don't need to go to the Super Bowl. We just need to go to two weeks ago in our own plane dealer.

Elyria man finds his Mr. Wright. Did you see that piece? With the two men on the cake. The man saying, "I wanted to do everything as traditional as I could, so I asked my gay colleague to go and ask my dad if I could get married."

A tragic, sad piece of work. It would be one thing if it simply was an entity in and of itself, but this is how the article ends.

Soon they will submit an application to adopt a child. While they will both be the child's parents, Heidenreich will apply as a single man, so he'll be able to work the system, so to have a better chance of adopting.

And they will probably try to adopt a special needs child, such as one with AIDS, they said. Loved ones, it is a confused culture.

Kenyon College has a course, Biology 14. We're staying within the state of Ohio. The course, Biology 14, is on female sexuality. It sets out to explain, by definition of its notes, the way conventional medicine oppresses women.

That's the course. At the top of the reading list is a book called Witches Heal. In the preface to the course, it reads, quote, "As lesbians we must question the male medical authority and dare to heal and to follow the witches."

If you don't think that there is a correlation between the moral consensus of our nation and the inroads of satanic activity, you're not reading your Bible, and you're not walking around with your eyes open.

Loved ones, I can't say how strongly I feel this morning that into this confused culture which tolerates radical individualism, which makes an unpardonable sin anything that asserts that God has something to say which is authoritative, we need to be prepared to be authoritative.

God is not mocked. Don't be deceived. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. You shall have no other gods before me. There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.

The culture is confused. Secondly, we said that the church is compromised. Oz Guinness, in his book The Gravedigger File, points out that the church contributed to the creation of the modern world. Then she was committed to that world without reservation.

And before long, he says, she was contaminated by the world. She was in it up to our neck.

And the church has led the way, and so much of this, trendy clergy have made a mockery of the church by embracing every cultural attitude and cause and dragging them into the sanctuary.

In an article, Sex and Sin, in the Washington Post, five years ago now, July 88, Bishop Spong outlined the proposed service for the blessing of a homosexual marriage, presumably which was used here in Illyria.

It begins, "In the name of God, I, George, do take you, Stan, to be my companion."

And the lady who conducted this marriage was unprepared to give her name. They're making a verbal commitment to these people, and they love each other, and it's permanent.

What's your name? I don't want to give you my name. Because she also marries heterosexual couples and fears it could turn some away.

Most of the statements from the establishment church that have reached the press are marked by this kind of compromise—a compromise which is the birth child of confusion.

So let's move on. What are we to say? Are we to embrace the futility of T.S. Eliot in the words I quoted last time, the church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned?

What have we to do but stand with empty hands and palms upturned in an age which advances progressively backwards?

Well, our posture should certainly be dependent upon God, but it can be far more straightforward than that. We need not adopt merely a passive pose because—and thirdly, and here we are—the Bible is clear.

The Bible is clear. In this Bible, in this ancient book, we have enough clarity to pierce the muffled sounds that come from confused thinking.

In this book, we have timeless truth in an age of shifting values. Here, in this book, there's both firmness and compassion—the firmness that deals with moral laxity, the compassion that deals with broken people.

And as we ended last time, I pointed out that there were three foundational truths which we needed to embrace, reinforce, and write down as axiomatic. And here they are.

Number one, we are all human beings. We are all human beings. We look at the way our children keep their room, and we may wonder at that, but by and large, you understand.

We are all human beings. Why do I say that? Because there is no such phenomenon as a homosexual. There is no such thing as a homosexual.

We are all human beings. We are all persons. We are all male and female persons. There are not male persons and female persons and homosexual.

It's And that notion has so pervaded so much of our thinking that we are unable to bring the Bible with love and grace to bear upon the homosexual community.

And I'll say more about that as we go on.

John Stott puts it helpfully. However strongly we may disapprove of homosexual practices, we have no liberty to dehumanize those who engage in them.

We dare not dehumanize them by referring to them with a title which denigrates their very existence. Think it out.

We are all human beings.

Secondly, we are all sexual beings. Our sexuality is absolutely basic to our humanness.

The Bible says that, and our experience tells us that.

Consequently, when we talk about issues such as these that relate to things like this, we're touching a point close to the very center of our personality.

That's why it is such a sensitive issue to address these things. It needs to be done with care.

Thirdly, we are all sinful beings. We're all human beings. We're all sexual beings. We're all sinful beings.

The Bible says that sin has touched and tainted every aspect of our humanity, including our sexuality.

Now, what are the implications of that? Well, let me read it for you in the comments of one man.

Obviously, who has not had a lustful thought that deviated from God's perfect ideal of sexuality. Sin has touched and tainted every aspect of our humanity, including our sexuality.

Therefore, we have no right to isolate one kind of sexual sin from all the others as if it were the big sin.

The Bible says that we all stand underneath God's judgment. We are all in urgent need of his grace.

Now, I lay that down as foundational. Indeed, let me give you a biblical summary before I guide you through some passages.

Here's the summary. This is what the Bible says. You're sensible people, check and see.

God created man as male and female. Okay? Within the framework of faithful heterosexual relationships in marriage, there is the fulfillment of our sexuality.

God makes special provision in terms of celibacy, but the fulfillment of sexuality, as per what he has outlined from the beginning, from the creation narrative, is within the framework of faithful heterosexual relationships.

God has not and does not alter his message to fit the culture. Hence, I say to you again, we live as aliens and strangers if we are prepared to live in obedience to what the Bible teaches.

Now, with your Bible open on your lap, let me just trace a line through for you here. I'm not going to turn to every passage, but I'm going to turn to foundational passages, and I'm not going to expound them. I want you just to see where they are so that it may be a reference for your further study.

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

Simply stated, to be created in the image of God includes being in relationship as male and female. It was within the context of their male and femaleness that he gave to them the exhortation to be fruitful and increase in number.

And if you allow your gaze to go over a chapter into chapter 2 and verse 18, you have further explanation of the complementary nature of male and female relationships.

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

The end of verse 20, But for Adam no suitable helper was found. He's made all the beasts, and he's made the birds of the air. He's done all that stuff.

The man names them all, but he doesn't have his helper. So verse 21, The Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

And there was Adam, male and female, created in the image of God.

Here is the cleaned and formatted sermon transcription:

An to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man, and now we have marriage." For this reason a man will leave his mom and dad and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Loved ones, this is not mythology. This is history. If you doubt that, then you're in deep trouble from every point out.

And for some people, the whole issue that we're tackling this morning is ultimately, when traced to its roots, a crisis of confidence over the authority of this book. And because we do not believe and trust in this book, we're unprepared then to preach from this book, and having let down the book, we've got nothing else to say except to reiterate the confusion of the culture around us.

Now, when you go into Genesis chapter 3, what we have there is the distortion which comes as a result of sin. God makes man as male and female. God determines that there is a complementary relationship between male and female. It has to do with sexuality. It has to do with joy. It has to do with fulfillment. It has to do with family.

And then it's in Genesis chapter 3, sin distorts the whole divine pattern for male-female relationships. And as a result of that, estrangement, alienation, and disjointedness enters into the whole matter of sexuality. Alienation, estrangement, and disjointedness impinges upon that perfection which God made.

And if it was my purpose this morning, I would go through these in detail. If you're taking notes, let me show this to you, and you can go back and check. The sexual mess which follows from Genesis 3 reveals itself in these five areas:

1. Adultery (Genesis 26:10)
2. Incest (Genesis 19:36)
3. Rape (Genesis 34:2)
4. Prostitution (Genesis 38:15)
5. Homosexuality (Genesis 18 and 19)

These are all distortions of man's sexuality as a result of the fall of man in sin in the historical event of Genesis chapter 3.

Now, the reason that we're addressing one of these monstrosities – namely, homosexuality – which I told you last time Luther referred to as an idolatrous distortion instilled by the devil – the reason we're addressing this one monstrosity on these two Sundays is not because it is the sin, not even the sexual sin.

But because we need to come to a biblical understanding of the subject in order that we might be able to live as aliens and strangers in our world, to speak comfort to those whose lives are broken, and to speak with clarity and firmness to those who've embraced moral laxity.

From Genesis, let's go into Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus 18:22, "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman. This is detestable." Leviticus 20:13, "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death. Their blood will be on their own heads."

Before I get at this, let me say something to you that underpins all of it. The underlying premise in all of these directives that are found here in the Levitical law is, once again, the alien status of God's people.

The reason all of these things exist is because God purposed to have a people for himself who would be utterly unlike any other people. And in order for him to show how unlike they were all the surrounding nations, he gave to them all these details of dietary and ceremonial law and his moral law.

He did it in order that he might establish this truth: "Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2). And his purpose throughout it all is to preserve the sanctity of marriage and the home.

But, says somebody, "I've read that Levitical stuff. I think, Alistair, that you're picking and choosing what you want to apply." After all, if you read around that in Leviticus, you discover, for example, that God's people weren't to eat any creature that didn't have a split hoof and chew the cud.

True. Also, they were not allowed to eat shrimp or crab or oysters. No fish. True. Well, what about it? Well, I'm glad you asked.

The answer is straightforward, and it is clear. The New Testament consistently sets aside both the dietary and the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament while continuing to uphold the moral law of God.

That is why at Table Talk, which will be this Wednesday at lunchtime – all being well, we look forward to seeing you there – that's why at Table Talk we are not doing the dietary laws from Leviticus with those who are coming for lunch, but we are doing the Ten Commandments.

Why? Because Christ in his death has set aside the dietary and the ceremonial, and he has upheld the moral. So I'm glad you asked the question.

Because it points out that you're thinking the issues out, and think them out we need to. That is why, incidentally, the violators are not executed, because Jesus has died opening up the possibility of forgiveness, unlike in the age that preceded it.

Come into the New Testament quickly with me, Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19, the words of Jesus, quoting from the passages we've been reading.

Matthew 19:4, Jesus replied, "Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?'"

Verse 10. Verse 11.

Not everyone can accept this word, says Jesus, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way, live a celibate life. Others were made that way by men, and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven.

The reason I read both sections is because of this, and I just want to say it and move on.

In the Gospels, the only view of sexuality is that of marriage or celibacy. In all that Jesus ever said, he countenanced no other view, save marriage or celibacy. There is no thought of anything else.

With a seventh-grade education, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you will be able to affirm what I'm saying.

Turn now to Romans chapter 1, the passage that we were reading earlier.

Romans chapter 1. The key phrase, perhaps, in this whole section and in understanding it is in the beginning of verse 24 and then at the beginning of verse 26.

God gave them over. It's better than God gave them up. God gave them up is in the King James Version, and it sounds like God quit on them. God gave them over explains what he did.

One of the impacts of God's judgment, says Paul, is to give men and women the freedom to go their own way.

One of the signs that God's judgment resides upon a culture and upon a period in history is the fact that men and women seem free to do just exactly what they want to do, just like the culture in which we're living now. It's a sign of God's judgment.

God's judgment. He said, "Listen, you have denied me. You have despised me. You have disowned me. You have removed me from your schools. You have chosen to denigrate the truth of my word. You have taken me from out of all the foundations of your lives."

Fine. If that's the way you want it, that's the way you can have it.

And God gave them over

to the expressions of their freedom, to running wild and profligate through their lands.

And one of the classic expressions of this having been given up to man's futile freedom is homosexuality.

The language that is used to describe it is not difficult to understand. The four words which come in verses 26 and 27 and 28 are these:

Shameful, unnatural, indecent perversion. Shameful, unnatural, indecent perversion.

So says the Bible, with clarity into our chaos.

Now, one final passage in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Stop there for just a moment. I am in deep trouble, because I'm sure I got in on this somewhere.

So, if this is a categorical statement, and this has ever been my life, then I am without God and without hope.

Now, that's why verse 11 comes after verse 10. Look at this.

And that is what some of you were, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In other words, Jesus Christ has the power to take all those kinds of lives and justify them and wash them and purify them and make them in his purposes all that he desires for them to be.

It is a word of great hope. It is a word of revolution.

In summary, when you take all of this, what you find is that the Bible affirms, without any shame at all, that homosexuality is sinful, it's unnatural, it's perverted. So says the Bible. A rudimentary understanding of human physiology ought to point it out to anybody. It is wrong.

And homosexual attitudes and acts are not the result of genetic structure. They are not irreversible. They are not irresponsible. They are secondary learned drives associated with habitual perversion, which has grown out of a sinful way of life.

And if I am not mistaken, the homosexual community is far closer to acknowledging this right now today than it has ever been.

Ten years ago, what they were saying was, "You better not be unkind to me, because look at me. I was born this way, you know."

As I've listened to the most recent statements, I don't hear them saying that anymore. I'm not saying that it isn't said, nor that it isn't an expression, but this is what I'm hearing.

Hey, get out of my face. I made a choice. Sexuality has a variety of expressions, and I chose this one. I don't care who knows. I don't care what it means.

And you, nor anyone, has any right to question it.

What is the answer?

The answer is that God, who created man in the beginning, made them male and female, set us up with the Maker's instructions, explained exactly how it should operate, and since he is God and there is no other, he has every right to say what's wrong and every right to uphold that which is to be the distinctives of those who follow after him.

Now, let me summarize this. We should not miss the fact

that in that passage in Romans and then in 1 Corinthians, Paul consistently calls sin, sin, and he makes no apology for it. He lists homosexual sin along with other kinds of sin. He doesn't isolate homosexual sin for special reprobation. He says that homosexuality is only one of many evils, but it is an evil that occurs when God allows sinners to have their own way in their lives.

He reminds the believers in Corinth that they had formerly been sinners just like that.

And it was the grace of God that had cleansed them and changed them.

The culture is confused. The church is compromised. The Bible is clear.

But here's the question. Here's the question. Is the Christian committed? Are you, Mr. Christian? Are you, Miss Christian, committed to reaching these people for Jesus Christ?

Or are you and I going to embrace the same homophobia

which pervades your average, well-heeled, put-together congregation.

The real issue is, are we going to send a message out through these doors which says, "Welcome to Parkside Church for the people who have it all together?"

I want to say to you that an effective church will always have homosexuals in it. An effective church will always have people in it who are dealing with the impact of drug addiction.

Because the effect of church will not have turned in upon itself, but it will have turned out to the world, and it would have said to them, "Hey, we've got a message of hope. We've got a message of change. We've got good news for you."

Now, that's my final point, but it's twelve o'clock, so we have to stop.

But it's really the point of application. I am not going to take this into a following Sunday morning.

I'm going to finish this up tonight, the kind of practical P.S. application of this.

Here's the question we'll deal with tonight:

Am I, as a Christian, committed,

one, to care deeply,
two, to speak boldly,
and three, to live differently in a confused world with a compromised church, but proclaiming a Bible that's really clear?

The final piece of this message gets right underneath the skin of many of us who have more than a little of the spirit of the Pharisee about us.

I thank thee that I am not as other men are, and especially not like this homosexual.

Let's bow together in prayer.

Our gracious God and Father,

We thank you for the privilege of worship,
for the opportunity to take your word upon our laps
and leaf through its pages
and ask that the Spirit of God will be our teacher.

We're dealing with topical stuff, practical stuff.
And if we're going to be what you desire for us to be at the tail end of the 20th century in this culture,
we figure we better work this one out and work it out soon.

So teach us. Forgive us.

transform us, purify us.

And if we sit this morning wrestling with some of these issues
and don't know where to turn,
give us grace simply to cry out to you from where we are.

And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forevermore. Amen.